Printer unit employing vertically disposed media storage and collection areas

ABSTRACT

A printer is provided comprising substantially vertically disposed print media supply and collector. The print media supply supplies print media for printing by a printhead and the collector collects the printed print media. A transport device comprises rollers is provided to transport the print media through a delivery path which passes through an angle of at least 140°, and preferably 180°, from the supply to the collector via the printhead.

The present application is a Continuation-In-Part application of U.S.Ser. No. 10/760,254 filed on Jan. 21, 2004. In the interests of brevity,the disclosure of the parent application is incorporated in its entiretyinto the present specification by cross reference.

CO-PENDING APPLICATIONS

The following applications have been filed by the Applicantsimultaneously with the present application: RRB001US RRB002US RRB003USRRB004US RRB005US RRB006US RRB007US RRB008US RRB009US RRB010US RRB011USRRB012US RRB013US RRB014US RRB015US RRB016US RRB017US RRB018US RRB019USRRB020US RRB021US RRB022US RRB023US RRB024US RRB025US RRB026US RRB027USRRB030US RRB031US RRB032US RRB033US RRC001US RRC002US RRC003US RRC004USRRC005US RRC006US RRC007US RRC008US RRC009US RRC010US RRC011US RRC012USRRC013US RRC014US RRC015US RRC016US RRC017US RRC018US RRC019US RRC020USRRC021US MFA001US VPA002US PNA001US WPA001US SHA001USThe disclosures of these co-pending applications are incorporated hereinby reference. The above applications have been identified by theirfiling docket number, which will be substituted with the correspondingapplication number, once assigned.

CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The following patents or patent applications filed by the applicant orassignee of the present invention are hereby incorporated bycross-reference. 6,795,215 10/884,881 PEC01NP 09/575,109 10/296,53509/575,110 6,805,419 09/607,985 6,398,332 6,394,573 6,622,923 6,747,76010/189,459 PEC14US PEC15US 10/727,181 10/727,162 10/727,163 10/727,24510/727,204 10/727,233 10/727,280 10/727,157 10/727,178 10/727,21010/727,257 10/727,238 10/727,251 10/727,159 10/727,180 10/727,17910/727,192 10/727,274 10/727,164 10/727,161 10/727,198 10/727,15810/754,536 10/754,938 10/727,227 10/727,160 PEA29US 10/854,52110/854,522 10/854,488 10/854,487 10/854,503 10/854,504 10/854,50910/854,510 10/854,496 10/854,497 10/854,495 10/854,498 10/854,51110/854,512 10/854,525 10/854,526 10/854,516 10/854,508 10/854,50710/854,515 10/854,506 10/854,505 10/854,493 10/854,494 10/854,48910/854,490 10/854,492 10/854,491 10/854,528 10/854,523 10/854,52710/854,524 10/854,520 10/854,514 10/854,519 PLT036US 10/854,49910/854,501 PLT039US 10/854,502 10/854,518 10/854,517 PLT043US 10/728,80410/728,952 10/728,806 10/728,834 10/729,790 10/728,884 10/728,97010/728,784 10/728,783 10/728,925 10/728,842 10/728,803 10/728,78010/728,779 10/773,189 10/773,204 10/773,198 10/773,199 10/773,19010/773,201 10/773,191 10/773,183 10/773,195 10/773,196 10/773,18610/773,200 10/773,185 10/773,192 10/773,197 10/773,203 10/773,18710/773,202 10/773,188 10/773,194 10/773,193 10/773,184 10/760,27210/760,273 10/760,187 10/760,182 10/760,188 10/760,218 10/760,21710/760,216 10/760,233 10/760,246 10/760,212 10/760,243 10/760,20110/760,185 10/760,253 10/760,255 10/760,209 10/760,208 10/760,19410/760,238 10/760,234 10/760,235 10/760,183 10/760,189 10/760,26210/760,232 10/760,231 10/760,200 10/760,190 10/760,191 10/760,22710/760,207 10/760,181 6,746,105 6,623,101 6,406,129 6,505,916 6,457,8096,550,895 6,457,812 6,428,133 IJ52NP 10/407212 10/407207 10/68306410/683041 10/882774 10/884889 10/922890 JUM008US JUM009US JUM010US10/922884 JUM012US JUM013US JUM014US JUM015US JUM016US 10/92287110/922880 JUM019US 10/922882 JUM021US 10/922878 JUM023US 10/922876JUM025US 10/922877 10/815625 10/815624 10/815628 10/913375 10/91337310/913374 IRB004US 10/913377 10/913378 10/913380 10/913379 10/91337610/913381 IRB011US 09/575187 6727996 6591884 6439706 6760119 09/57519809/722148 09/722146 09/721861 6290349 6428155 6785016 09/60892009/721892 09/722171 09/721858 09/722142 10/171987 10/202021 10/29172410/291512 10/291554 10/659027 10/659026 10/831242 10/884885 10/88488310/901154 NPP049US NPP051US NPP052US NPP053US NPP054US NPP057US NPP058USNPP062US 10/659027 09/693301 09/575197 09/575195 09/575159 09/57513209/575123 09/575148 09/575130 09/575165 6813039 09/575118 09/57513109/575116 6816274 09/575139 09/575186 6681045 6728000 09/57514509/575192 09/575181 09/575193 09/575183 6789194 09/575150 67891916549935 09/575174 09/575163 6737591 09/575154 09/575129 09/57512409/575188 09/575189 09/575170 09/575171 09/575161 6644642 65026146622999 6669385 CAA001US CAA002US CAA003US CAA004US CAA005US CAA006USCAA007US CAA008US CAA009US CAA010US CAA011US CAA012US CAA013US CAA014USCAA015US CAA016US CAA017US CAB001US CAC001US CAD001US CAE001US CAF001USCAF002US CAF003US CAF004USSome applications have been listed by docket numbers. These will bereplaced when application numbers are known.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a high-speed printer, and moreparticularly to a method of collection printouts from a desktop printerwhich can print more than 30 pages or more a minute at high qualitywhilst occupying a minimum amount of space.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Desktop printers for use in home and office environments are well knownand are widely commercially available with varying designs andcapabilities. Typically, commercially available desktop printers are ofa size and configuration that requires a relatively substantial amountof space to accommodate the printer unit and associated components, suchas print media input and/or output trays. Indeed, much of this large“footprint” of conventional printers may be occupied by the input andoutput trays. The footprint of the printer typically also includes thespace required for accessing the printer and for printing in anunobstructed manner.

Even in conventional printers which do not use such print media traysand incorporate print media source and collection areas within theprinter unit itself, a limitation in minimising the printer's footprintstill remains in that it must at the very least correspond to thelargest print media size to be printed, for example, A4 or A3 paper.

With the ongoing trend of smaller and more compact workstations it isnecessary to maximise the available workspace, such that it is becomingincreasingly necessary to reduce the amount of space occupied byequipment, such as desktop printers. Thus, there is a need to minimisethe footprint of a desktop printer.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In a first aspect the present invention provides a printer comprising:

-   -   a print media supply for supplying print media for printing;    -   a printhead for printing on said print media;    -   a print media collector for collecting said printed print media;        and    -   a transport device for transporting the print media through a        delivery path from the print media supply to the print media        collector via the printhead,    -   wherein the print media supply and collector are substantially        vertically disposed, and    -   the print media delivery path passes through an angle of at        least 140°.

Optionally the printhead is a pagewidth inkjet printhead.

Optionally the print media delivery path passes through an angle of atleast 180°.

Optionally the print media supply is adaptable to store variously sizedprint media.

Optionally the print media supply is inclined to the vertical by anangle of about 15° to 20°.

Optionally the print media collector is inclined to the vertical by anangle of about 10° to 15°.

Optionally the print media supply and collector are arranged adjacentone another beneath the printhead.

Optionally the transport device comprises:

-   -   a picker assembly arranged to pick-up sheets of print media from        the print media supply; and    -   a roller assembly arranged to receive the picked-up sheets from        the picker assembly and transport the received sheets to the        printhead for printing.

Optionally the transport device further comprises print media guides forguiding the picked-up sheets of print media from the picker assembly tothe roller assembly.

In a further aspect there is provided a printer, further comprisingdrive electronics for driving the printing of the printhead andcontrolling the picker assembly to advance the picked-up sheets of printmedia and the roller assembly to transport the accepted sheets of printmedia to the printhead.

In a further aspect there is provided a printer, further comprising:

-   -   a base;    -   a print engine having the printhead for printing an image on        print media; and    -   a substantially vertically extending body connecting the base        and the print engine, said body having at least two        substantially vertically extending surfaces,    -   wherein the print media supply is provided on a first surface of        said surfaces of the body and the print media collector is        provided on a second surface of said surfaces of the body.

In a further aspect there is provided a printer, further comprisingmeans for collecting printed sheets of print media, wherein the means:

-   -   ejects a printed sheet from the printhead;    -   allows said sheet to fall from the printhead assuming a        substantially vertical path;    -   captures the leading edge of said sheet; and    -   applies a retaining force to said sheet, said retaining force        having a component substantially perpendicular to said        substantially vertical path; and    -   collects said sheet on a retaining surface of the print media        collector, said retaining surface being inclined with respect to        said substantially vertical path.

In a further aspect there is provided a printer, wherein:

-   -   the printhead is comprised in a print engine having an outlet        arranged to eject printed sheets from the print engine in a        substantially vertical path;    -   the print media collector is disposed beneath said outlet and        has a collection surface inclined with respect to said        substantially vertical path for collecting said ejected sheets        and a foot portion projecting from the collection surface; and    -   the foot portion is arranged to project into the substantially        vertical path of said ejected sheets and has a contact surface        arranged to contact a leading edge of said sheets to stop        movement thereof in said substantially vertical path, said        contact surface being arranged to urge said sheets toward the        collection surface for collection.

In a further aspect there is provided a printer, wherein the print mediacollector comprises a substantially vertical collection surface adaptedto collect one or more sheets of the print media fed from the printheadin a substantially vertical direction and to retain said one or moresheets in a substantially vertical orientation, the collection surfacebeing arranged to impart a lateral curvature to the collected printmedia orthogonal to the feed direction of the print media.

In a further aspect there is provided a printer incorporating a systemfor indicating a state of the printer, the system comprising:

-   -   a light source arranged to emit light of a plurality of colours;    -   a light transmitting channel extending along a surface of the        printer and arranged so as to transmit light from the light        source and emit said light along a length of the channel; and    -   a controller arranged to control the light source in response to        a detected operational state of the printer, so that the light        transmitting channel emits predefined different colours to        indicate predefined different states of the printer.

In a further aspect there is provided a printer, further comprising:

-   -   a housing having a print engine comprising the printhead;    -   a print media supply tray incorporated in the print media supply        for receiving print media for printing by said print engine,        said print media supply tray being arranged to be received by        the housing so that said print media is maintained in a        substantially vertical orientation; and    -   a retaining element provided on the housing and arranged to        contact the print media when the supply tray is received by the        housing so as to retain the print media in said substantially        vertical orientation.

In a further aspect there is provided a printer, further comprising adetachable stand for supporting the print media supply, the printheadand the print media collector in an operating orientation wherein theprint media supply and the print media collector are substantiallyvertically disposed.

In a further aspect there is provided a printer arranged as a desktopprinter, wherein:

-   -   the printhead incorporates a pagewidth printhead arranged as a        two-dimensional array of at least 5000 printing nozzles for        printing across the width of print media supplied from the        substantially vertically orientated print media supply and        delivered to the substantially vertically orientated print media        collector after printing; and    -   the print media supply and collector are provided on different        sides of a substantially vertically extending body of the        desktop printer.

In a further aspect there is provided a printer arranged as a desktopprinter, wherein:

-   -   the printhead has an array of ink ejecting nozzles configured as        a pagewidth printhead arranged to print on print media supplied        from the substantially vertically orientated print media supply        by ejecting drops of ink across the width of said print media at        a rate of at least 50 million drops per second and to deliver        the printed media to the substantially vertically orientated        print media collector; and    -   the print media supply and collector are provided on different        sides of a substantially vertically extending body of the        desktop printer.

In another aspect the present invention provides a printer comprising:

-   -   a print media supply for supplying print media for printing;    -   a printhead for printing on said print media;    -   a print media collector for collecting said printed print media;        and    -   a transport device for transporting the print media through a        delivery path from the print media supply to the print media        collector via the printhead,    -   wherein the print media supply and collector are substantially        vertically disposed, and the print media delivery path passes        through an angle of at least 140°.

In another aspect the present invention provides a printer for printingon media supplied from a media supply and delivering printed media to amedia collector, comprising:

-   -   a base;    -   a print engine for printing an image on media; and    -   a substantially vertically extending body connecting the base        and the print engine, said body having at least two        substantially vertically extending surfaces,    -   wherein the media supply is provided on a first surface of said        surfaces of the body and the media collector is provided on a        second surface of said surfaces of the body.

In another aspect the present invention provides a method of collectingprinted sheets of media from a printer, comprising the steps of:

-   -   ejecting a printed sheet from the printer;    -   allowing said sheet to fall from the printer assuming a        substantially vertical path;    -   capturing the leading edge of said sheet; and    -   applying a retaining force to said sheet, said retaining force        having a component substantially perpendicular to said        substantially vertical path; and    -   collecting said sheet on a retaining surface, said retaining        surface being inclined with respect to said substantially        vertical path.

In another aspect the present invention provides a system for collectingprinted sheets of media from a printer, comprising:

-   -   a print engine having a printhead for printing images on sheets        of media and an outlet arranged to eject said printed sheets        from the print engine in a substantially vertical path; and    -   a collector disposed beneath said outlet having a collection        surface inclined with respect to said substantially vertical        path for collecting said ejected sheets and a foot portion        projecting from the collection surface,    -   wherein the foot portion is arranged to project into the        substantially vertical path of said ejected sheets and has a        contact surface arranged to contact a leading edge of said        sheets to stop movement thereof in said substantially vertical        path, said contact surface being arranged to urge said sheets        toward the collection surface for collection.

In another aspect the present invention provides a collector forcollecting print media fed from a printer comprising:

-   -   a substantially vertical collection surface adapted to collect        one or more sheets of print media fed from said printer in a        substantially vertical direction and to retain said one or more        sheets in a substantially vertical orientation,    -   wherein the collection surface is arranged to impart a lateral        curvature to the collected print media orthogonal to the feed        direction of the print media.

In another aspect the present invention provides a system for indicatinga state of a printer, comprising:

-   -   a light source arranged to emit light of a plurality of colours;    -   a light transmitting channel extending along a surface of the        printer and arranged so as to transmit light from the light        source and emit said light along a length of the channel; and    -   a controller arranged to control the light source in response to        a detected operational state of the printer, so that the light        transmitting channel emits predefined different colours to        indicate predefined different states of the printer.

In another aspect the present invention provides a printing device forprinting an image onto a surface of print media comprising:

-   -   a housing having a print engine for printing;    -   a print media supply tray for receiving print media for printing        by said print engine, said print media supply tray arranged to        be received by the housing so that said print media is        maintained in a substantially vertical orientation; and    -   a retaining element provided on the housing and arranged to        contact the print media when the supply tray is received by the        housing so as to retain the print media in said substantially        vertical orientation.

In another aspect the present invention provides a printer comprising:

-   -   a print media supply for supplying print media for printing;    -   a printhead for printing on said print media;    -   a print media collector for collecting said printed print media;    -   a transport device for transporting the print media through a        delivery path from the print media supply to the print media        collector via the printhead; and    -   a detachable stand for supporting the print media supply, the        printhead and the print media collector in an operating        orientation wherein the print media supply and the print media        collector are substantially vertically disposed, and    -   the print media delivery path defines an angle of at least 140°.

In another aspect the present invention provides a desktop printercomprising a pagewidth printhead arranged as a two-dimensional array ofat least 5000 printing nozzles for printing across the width of mediasupplied from a substantially vertically orientated media supply anddelivered to a substantially vertically orientated media collector afterprinting, the media supply and collector being provided on differentsides of a substantially vertically extending body of the printer.

In another aspect the present invention provides a desktop printercomprising an array of ink ejecting nozzles configured as a pagewidthprinthead arranged to print on media supplied from a substantiallyvertically orientated media supply by ejecting drops of ink across thewidth of said media at a rate of at least 50 million drops per secondand to deliver the printed media to a substantially verticallyorientated media collector, the media supply and collector beingprovided on different sides of a substantially vertically extending bodyof the printer.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a printer in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 shows a front plan view of the printer of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 shows a rear plan view of the printer of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 shows a rear perspective view of the printer of FIG. 1illustrating a print media source tray assembly and base unit thereof;

FIG. 5 illustrates an open position of the print media source trayassembly of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 illustrates components of a housing and a head unit of theprinter of FIG. 1;

FIG. 7 shows an exploded view of the printer of FIG. 1 illustrating thevarious components thereof;

FIG. 8 illustrates the print media source tray assembly of FIG. 4 loadedwith A4 print media;

FIG. 9 shows an exploded view of the print media source tray assembly ofFIG. 8;

FIG. 10 illustrates the print media source tray assembly of FIG. 4loaded with photographic print media;

FIG. 11 illustrates the printer as shown in FIG. 4 with the print mediasource tray assembly removed;

FIG. 12 illustrates the printer as shown in FIG. 11 with a foil memberthereof removed revealing WIFI and Bluetooth® card components;

FIG. 13 shows a cross-sectional view of the printer taken along the lineA-A of FIG. 2;

FIG. 14 illustrates an operative position of a picker assembly of theprinter in relation to the print media source tray assembly of FIG. 10;

FIG. 15 illustrates, in more detail, the components in an upper portionof the printer shown in FIG. 13 in relation to a path of a topmost sheetfrom a print media stack held by the print media source tray assemblythrough the picker assembly of FIG. 14;

FIG. 16 illustrates an open position of the head unit with a cartridgeunit shown removed from the printer of FIG. 6;

FIG. 17 shows the opened head unit of FIG. 16 in more detail with thecartridge unit in place and a refill cartridge being applied thereto;

FIG. 18 illustrates print media collection performed by the printer ofFIG. 1 and an extendable support member of the printer;

FIG. 19 shows a top plan view of the printer of FIG. 1;

FIG. 20 shows in cross-section the components in an upper portion of aprinter in accordance with an embodiment of the present inventionillustrating a path of a manually-fed print media sheet;

FIG. 21 shows a top view of the printer of FIG. 20;

FIG. 22 shows a side plan view of the printer of FIG. 1;

FIGS. 23A and 23B respectively illustrate the position of a sheet ofprint media exiting and being released from a print engine assembly ofthe printer of FIG. 1;

FIG. 24A illustrates a light pipe of the printer of FIG. 1;

FIG. 24B illustrates a light source of the light pipe of FIG. 24A;

FIG. 25 shows a perspective view of a printer in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 26 illustrates the base unit as shown in FIG. 4 with a coverthereof removed;

FIG. 27 shows a bottom view of the printer of FIG. 1;

FIG. 28 illustrates the printer of FIG. 1 positioned on a standassembly;

FIG. 29 shows a rear perspective view of the printer positioned on thestand assembly of FIG. 28;

FIG. 30 shows a perspective view (partly in section) of a portion of anozzle system of a printhead integrated circuit that is incorporated ina printhead of the printer of FIG. 1;

FIG. 31 shows a vertical sectional view of a single nozzle (of thenozzle system shown in FIG. 30) in a quiescent state;

FIG. 32 shows a vertical sectional view of the nozzle of FIG. 31 at aninitial actuation state;

FIG. 33 shows a vertical sectional view of the nozzle of FIG. 32 at alater actuation state;

FIG. 34 shows in perspective a partial vertical sectional view of thenozzle at the initial actuation state shown in FIG. 32;

FIG. 35 shows in perspective a partial vertical sectional view of thenozzle at the later actuation state shown in FIG. 33;

FIG. 36 shows a schematic diagram of document data flow in the printerof FIG. 1;

FIG. 37 illustrates a data representation of a page element used in FIG.36;

FIG. 38 shows a more detailed schematic diagram showing an architectureused in FIG. 36;

FIG. 39 shows a schematic view of a controller incorporated in a printengine assembly of the printer of FIG. 1;

FIG. 40 shows a schematic diagram illustrating CMOS drive and controlblocks for use in FIG. 36;

FIG. 41 shows a schematic diagram illustrating the relationship betweennozzle columns and dot shift registers in the CMOS blocks of FIG. 40;

FIG. 42 shows a more detailed schematic diagram illustrating a unit celland its relationship to the nozzle columns and dot shift registers ofFIG. 41; and

FIG. 43 shows a circuit diagram illustrating logic for a single nozzlein FIG. 36.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

A printer 100 in accordance with the present invention is variouslyillustrated in FIGS. 1 to 7. The printer 100 comprises a housing 101, ahead unit 102 and a print media source tray assembly 103.

The housing 101 is provided as a substantially vertically extending bodyof the printer 100 having an inverted L-shape with an upper portion 104and a lower portion 105. The upper portion 104 is arranged to receive apicker assembly 106 and a print engine assembly 107 (see FIGS. 6 and 7)which together provide a print media transport system for transportingprint media from the print media source tray assembly 103 which acts asa print media source or supply of the printer 100, to the printingmechanics of the print engine assembly 107 (described later). The lowerportion 105 is arranged as a print media collection area or collector.In this description, all references to upper, lower, outer, inner,bottom and top are provided with respect to the orientation of theprinter 100 shown in FIGS. 1 to 7.

The head unit 102 covers the picker and print engine assemblies 106 and107 held by the upper portion 104 of the housing 101 and is pivotallyattached to the upper portion 104 via hinges 108 (see FIG. 6). Thisprovides easy access to the picker and print engine assemblies 106 and107 so that maintenance thereof and the clearing of print media jams andthe like can be performed. The head unit 102 incorporates a userinterface 109 via which a user can operate the printer 100 (discussed inmore detail later).

The print media source tray assembly 103 is received by the lowerportion 105 of the housing 101, as is shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, and iscapable of storing print media 110 for printing in a paper tray portion111 thereof (see FIG. 7). The print media 110 may be provided in theform of variously sized print media stacks each comprising of about 250sheets, and up to 500 sheets, i.e., a ream of paper. For example, inFIG. 7 photographic print media, e.g., 4″×6″ paper, is held by thesource tray assembly 103, whilst in FIG. 8 A4 paper is held. In thefollowing description the print media for use in the printer 100 isreferred to as paper, however other forms of print media are applicable.

The housing 101 and the source tray assembly 103 are supported by a baseunit 112 which houses power and data connections for the variouselectronic components of the printer 100. Particularly, the collectionarea 105 of the housing 101 and the source tray assembly 103 aresupported by the base unit 112 in a substantially vertical orientation.That is, the planar surfaces of the source tray assembly 103 and thecollection area 105 which are used to support paper for printing andpaper which has been printed, respectively, are held by the base unit112 so as to be substantially vertically oriented, which provides areduced “footprint” of the printer 100 as discussed in more detaillater.

Referring to FIGS. 5, 7, 8, 11 and 13 (where FIG. 13 shows across-sectional view of the printer 100 taken along the line A-A of FIG.2), the printer 100 is constructed by sliding an inner surface 105 a andside portions 105 b of the collection area 105 over front edges 112 aand side portions 112 b, respectively, of the base unit 112, with theupper portion 104 of the housing 101 mounting the print engine assemblyand picker assemblies 106 and 107 hingedly covered by the head unit 102.

The source tray assembly 103 is secured to the base unit 112 by engaginga tab 103 a on the bottom edge thereof with a slot 112 c in an uppersurface 112 d of the base unit 112. Through this, the source trayassembly 103 can be hingedly engaged with the housing 101, as shown inFIG. 5, in order to access the paper tray portion 111. This is done byusing a handle recess 113 provided in an outer surface 103 b of thesource tray assembly 103. Those skilled in the art will understand thatthe above construction technique is merely one such technique, andalternative means of constructing the printer 100, such as using one ormore “clipping” arrangements, are within the scope of the presentinvention.

The printer 100 thus constructed is intended for use as a desktopprinter which is capable of printing information onto paper at a rate ofat least 30 pages per minute (ppm), preferably at least 60 ppm, with aprinting resolution providing for so-called photographic qualityprinting of at least 1200 dots per inch (dpi), preferably at least 1600dpi. In use, the printer 100 presents a footprint, i.e., the surfacearea occupied by the printer 100 on the desktop, which is greatlyreduced from that of conventional printers since the printer 100 alongwith its paper supply and collector, i.e., the source tray assembly 103and the collection area 105, stands in a substantially verticalorientation with respect to the desktop surface. The manner in which theprinter 100 operates in this substantially vertical orientation will nowbe discussed.

FIG. 8 illustrates the source tray assembly 103 separated from theprinter 100 and holding the stack 110 of A4 paper, and FIG. 9 shows anexploded view of the source tray assembly 103 as shown in FIG. 8. As canbe seen, the source tray assembly 103 comprises a cover portion 114which forms the rear outer surface 103 b of the printer 100 when thesource tray assembly 103 is mounted to the base unit 112 and the housing101 (see FIG. 4). The cover portion 114 holds the paper tray portion 111which consists of a tray 115, a platen 116 arranged within the tray 115,a stop plate 117 and a fence plate 118. The paper stack 110 is loaded onthe source tray assembly 103 by being placed on the platen 116 arrangedin the tray 115 and is held in a desired location on the platen 116 byusing the stop and fence plates 117 and 118.

A support member 119 is held between the cover portion 114 and the tray115 so as to be slidable beyond the top edge of the source tray assembly103 to an uppermost position, as is shown in FIG. 19. A raised portion114 a of the cover 114 contacts an inner edge 119 a of the supportmember 119 thereby providing a lowermost position for the support member119, as is shown in FIG. 8. The reasons for providing this slidablesupport member 119 are discussed later.

The platen 116 is secured to the tray 115 by way of engaging holes 116 ain side portions 116 b and 116 c of the platen 116 with correspondinglugs 115 a on side portions 115 b of the tray 115. By way of thisengagement, the platen 116 is able to pivot with respect to the tray115. The reasons for providing this pivoting motion of the platen 116will become apparent from the discussion below. The side portion 116 cof the platen 116 situated at a lower end thereof below the pivots 115a/116 a is angled away from the planar body of the platen 116 so as toprovide a lever arm 120 for facilitating the pivoting of the platen 116.

A pad 121 is provided on an upper arm portion 116 d of the platen 116,and the side portions 116 b and 116 c project from a lower arm portion116 e of the platen 116. The pad 121 is formed of a material, such asrubber, felt, cork, etc, which provides friction on the rear surface ofthe lowermost sheet of paper in the stack 110 loaded on the assembledplaten 116 and tray 115. This friction is provided so as to assist inthe process of picking-up the sheets of paper from the stack 110 forprinting, which is discussed in detail later.

The stop plate 117 has (two) tabs 117 a arranged to be able to engagewith a plurality of (pairs of) holes 15 d of the tray 115 and a tab 117b arranged to be able to engage with a plurality of further holes 115 eof the tray 115. The holes 115 d and 115 e are provided in a section ofthe planar portion of the tray 115 below that which receives the platen116, where one of the holes 115 e is provided between each of a pair ofthe holes 115 d so that the tabs 117 a and 117 b can be engagedtherewith to secure the stop plate 117 to the tray 115 (see FIG. 13).

The fence plate 118 similarly has a tab 118 a for engaging with holes115 f provided in a lateral row on the tray 115. The tab 118 a isprovided on a bottom edge of a locking member 118 b which is used tolock the fence plate 118 in place on the tray 115 by engaging the tab118 a with one of the holes 115 f. This is enabled by the locking member118 b being able to pivot with respect to the body of the fence plate118 about a pivot point 118 c. A hole (or depression) is provided in thelocking member 118 b to allow a user's finger and the like to be placedtherein so as to disengage the tab 118 a from the holes 1115 f of thetray 115. The fence plate 118 is secured to the tray 115 by engaging aclip portion 118 d with a rod 122 provided in a recess 115 g of the tray115 and a clipping element 123, shown individually in FIG. 9, positionedbeneath the rod 122. In this way, the fence plate 118 is able to slidelaterally across the tray 115 along the rod 122.

The tray 115, and consequently the source tray assembly 103, is made toa size sufficient to accommodate the maximum sized paper to be used withthe printer 100. In the embodiment shown in the figures, the maximumpaper size that may be accommodated in this way is US legal (8.5″×14″).However, the printer 100 may be arranged to accommodate a differentmaximum print media size. Different sized paper is accommodated in thesource tray assembly 103 as shown in FIGS. 8 and 10 by moving the stopand fence plates 117 and 118 into varying positions via the holes 115d-f Those skilled in the art will understand that the above-describedarrangement to accommodate variously sized paper stacks within thesource tray assembly 103 is merely an example, and alternativearrangements and mechanisms may be used in accordance with the presentinvention to securely hold such paper stacks.

FIG. 11 illustrates the inner section of the housing 101, with thehousing 101 being mounted to the base unit 112. The inner section thehousing 101 comprises foils 124 as retaining members for the paper stack110. The foils 124 extend across the width of the inner section and areremovably secured to the housing 101 via brackets 125 at one endthereof. For example, one of the foils 124 is shown removed in FIG. 12.When secured, the foils 124 hang down from their secured end so as toproject out from the inner section of the housing 101. The foils 124 aremade from a flexible material, such as plastic, but are secured so as tobe resilient to small forces. The purpose of the foils 124 is asfollows.

Referring to the cross-sectional view of the printer 100 in FIG. 13, thecollection area 105 of the housing 101 is angled from the horizontal byabout 75° to 80° (i.e., 10° to 15° from the vertical), which angle isprovided so as to assist in collection of the printed paper from theprint engine assembly 107 as discussed in more detail later.Consequently, when the source tray assembly 103 is mounted to thehousing 101, it is at an angle of about 70° to 75° from the horizontal(i.e., 15° to 20° from the vertical). This angle on the source trayassembly 103 assists in the storage of the stack 110 and reduces theoccurrence of “sagging” in the paper of the stack 110 over time.However, the action of the picker assembly 106 used to pick-up thetopmost sheet from the stack 110 may cause subsequent sheet(s) toexperience some movement that may cause them to separate slightly fromthe stack 110, particularly at the lower regions.

Thus, the foils 124 are provided to apply a retaining force against thesheets in the stack 110 urging them back against the stack 110 therebypreventing individual sheets from separating and falling into the lowerregion of the paper tray portion 111 which can cause jams to occur. Theresilient nature of the foils 124 provides the appropriate retainingforce to maintain the sheets in position. Whilst two foils 124 are showna greater or lesser number of foils is within the scope of the presentinvention as to are foils having recessed portions along their lengthrather than being continuous, so long as the arrangement thereofprovides the securing of the sheets in the stack 110. The stack 110 issituated at the upper right corner of the tray 115 so that a topmostsheet 110 a of the stack 110 is presented to the picker assembly 106, asshown in FIGS. 6 and 14.

The picker assembly 106, shown most clearly in FIG. 14, may comprise adrive roller 126 driven by a motor 127 via a gearing mechanism 128situated on motor and roller axles 129 and 130. In the arrangementshown, the drive roller 126 is rotated clockwise by the motor 127 so asto pick-up the topmost sheet 110 a, where the speed of the drive roller126 is controlled by feeding back a detection result of an encoderarrangement 131 to the motor 127 via control circuitry (not shown). Thedrive roller 126 has a surface, such as rubber, which grips the sheetsof paper.

An idler or pinch roller 132 having a position variable with respect tothe drive roller 126 is used so that a sheet of differently sized printmedia can pass therebetween. A separator pad 133 is provided to ensurethat only a single sheet is fed through the picker assembly 106 to theprint engine assembly 107 for printing at any one time, therebypreventing multiple feeds to the print engine assembly 107 which cancause jams and/or distorted prints. It will be understood that othertypes of picker mechanism could be used in accordance with the presentinvention.

The picker assembly 106 is held within the upper portion 104 of thehousing 101 via a support frame 134, as shown in FIGS. 6, 7 and 13, soas to be in the position shown in FIG. 14 relative to the stack 110. Inoperation, the topmost sheet 110 a of the stack 110 is located againstthe drive roller 126 of the picker assembly 106 so that it may bereadily picked-up for advancement to the print engine assembly 107 forprinting, as shown in FIG. 15. As each consecutive topmost sheet 110 ais picked-up the relative height of the stack 110 decreases. Therefore,the platen 116 of the source tray assembly 103 is spring loaded towardsthe picker assembly 106 to ensure that the topmost sheet 110 a isconsistently presented to the picker assembly 106.

To achieve this, the housing 101 comprises a spring mechanism 135 whichcontacts the lever arm 120 of the platen 116 as shown in FIG. 13. Thespring mechanism 135 urges the lever arm 120 towards the tray 115thereby causing the platen 116 to pivot about its pivot points 115 a/116a, which causes an upper portion of the sheets in the stack 110 to beangled away from the tray 115 and towards the housing 101. Thus,throughout the pick-up process the upper portion of the stack 110 isurged toward the picker assembly 106. As an alternative, the springmechanism 135 can be incorporated on the lever arm 120 of the platen 116so as to engage with the inner section of the housing 101 to provide thesame action.

In this pick-up process, when the stack 110 approaches its depletedstate, there will be a situation where only a small number of sheetsremain, e.g., two sheets. In this situation it is possible that all ofthese sheets will be picked-up together, creating a multiple feed. Thisis because the friction between the sheets may be greater than thefriction between the stack 110 and the source tray assembly 103. Thus,the pad 121 is provided on the platen 116, as previously described, soas to present a higher friction surface between the last sheet of paperin the stack 110 and the platen 116 than that between the last andsecond-to-last sheets of paper in the stack 110. This arrangementassists in ensuring that too many sheets are not fed at once whichotherwise may cause a jam to occur at the interface between theseparator pad 133 and the drive roller 126 of the picker assembly 106 orfurther downstream of the transport system or print engine assembly 107.

Upon leaving the drive roller 126, the leading edge of the advancingsheet 110 a impinges upon an upper surface of the head unit 102, as isshown in FIG. 15. A plurality of (shaped) guides 136 are thereforeprovided on this upper surface of the head unit 102 (see also FIG. 6) toguide the sheet 110 a to the print engine assembly 107.

That is, the leading edge of the sheet 110 a follows the trajectory ofthe shape of the guides 136 to contact a guide plate 137 of the printengine assembly 107 which then directs the sheet 110 a into the printengine assembly 107 under the drive of the drive roller 126 of thepicker assembly 106. The print engine assembly 107 may be of the typedescribed in the present Applicant's United States patent applicationsFiling Docket Nos. RRA01US to RRA33US, the disclosures of which are allincorporated herein by reference. These applications have beenidentified by their filing docket number, which will be substituted withthe corresponding application number, once assigned. As such, the printengine assembly 107 is generally comprised of two parts: a cradle unit138 and a cartridge unit 139, shown variously in FIGS. 6, 7, 15 and 16.

The cartridge unit 139 comprises a printhead 140 for printing on a sheetof print media as it passes thereby and ink handling and storagereservoirs 141 for providing ink to the printhead 140. The printhead 140is a pagewidth printhead, which means that no scanning of the printhead140 across the sheets is required. This enables high-speed printing tobe performed. Those skilled in the art however will understand that thepresent invention is applicable to printers employing other types ofprintheads. Further, as shown in FIG. 15, the cartridge unit 139comprises a single printhead 140. However, a duplex printer may be usedemploying a cartridge unit having two pagewidth printheads aligned sothat printing surfaces thereof oppose each other with a gap therebetweenfor accommodating the sheet of print media.

The cradle unit 138 comprises the guide plate 137, a roller assembly 142and an associated motor 143 for advancing the sheet 110 a andcontrolling the trajectory and speed of the sheet 110 a as it passes theprinthead 140, drive electronics 144 for controlling the printingperformed by the printhead 140 and a capping unit 145 for capping theprinthead 140 when printing is not being performed.

The cradle unit 138 is mounted within the upper portion 104 of thehousing 101 and the cartridge unit 139 is removable received within thecradle unit 138, which allows for easy replacement of the printhead 140and ink storage reservoirs 141 when necessary. A release latch 146 isprovided for controlling this removal. The ink handling and storagereservoirs 141 of the cartridge unit 139 may store different colouredink and associated printing fluids, such as fixative for assisting thesetting of the printed ink. The printhead 140 draws the ink from thereservoirs 141 in order to print on the print media sheets.

A refill port 147 is incorporated in the cartridge unit 139 to which arefill cartridge 148 can be applied so as to refill the reservoirs withthe particular types of inks which may have been depleted throughprinting, as shown in FIG. 17 for the case of cyan ink. In order tofacilitate this refilling process an indicator light 149, such as anLED, is provided on the cradle unit 138 which is controlled to indicateto a user when refilling is needed and/or has been completed in themanner described in the present Applicant's above-mentionedapplications. The need for refilling can also be indicated to a user viathe user interface 109 of the head unit 102 or by print manager softwareloaded on the user's personal computer (PC) connected to the printer100, as discussed later.

The mounted position of the cradle unit 138 is such that the leadingedge of the sheet 110 a being fed from the drive roller 126 of thepicker assembly 106 and guided by the plurality of guides 136 and theguide plate 137 enters the roller assembly 142 of the cradle unit 138 soas to be advanced past the printhead 140 to be printed under action ofthe roller assembly 142 (and, in part, of the drive roller 126). Theleading edge of the sheet 110 a progresses through the cradle unit 138and following printing exits the upper portion 104 of the housing 101via an exit slot 104 b (see FIGS. 7 and 13). As such, the sheet 110 a isguided through an angle of at least 140°, and preferably an angle of atleast 180°, from the source tray assembly 103 to the collection area 105via the printhead 140.

During the printing process, the trailing edge of the sheet 110 a istransferred from being driven by the drive roller 126 to being drivenonly by the roller assembly 142 of the print engine assembly 107. Onceprinted, the trailing edge exits the upper portion 104 of the housing101 via the exit slot 104 b, whereupon the printed sheet 110 a iscollected by the collection area 105 of the housing 101, as shown inFIG. 18. The orientation of the cradle unit 138 and the cartridge unit139 of the print engine assembly 107 is such that the printed sheet 110a falls under gravity through the exit slot 104 b so as to be collectedby the collection area 105.

Sheets of print media may also be manually fed to the roller assembly142 of the print engine assembly 107 rather than being fed from thestack 110 held by the source tray assembly 103. This manual feeding isprimarily provided for printing individual print jobs on print mediathat may not be present in or suitable for the source tray assembly 103,such as photographic paper or other types of print media, such ascardboard, wood, fabric and plastics.

In order to provide for this manual feeding, a slot 150 is provided inan upper portion of the head unit 102, as shown in FIG. 19, throughwhich print media sheets are manually fed. The slot 150 has a lengthsufficient to accommodate the width of the maximum print media size forthe printer 100. In order to reduce the entry of dust and the like intothe print engine assembly 107 through the slot 150, since dust, etc maydamage the printhead 140, a flap 151 (see FIG. 15) spring loaded so asto be hinged inwardly or outwardly may be provided to close the slot 150when manual feeding is not being performed.

Referring again to FIG. 19, the head unit 102 may comprise a marginelement 152 which runs the length of the slot 150 on the upper surfaceof the head unit 102. The margin element 152 partly supports the sheetbeing fed and incorporates a sliding fence 153 which assists incontrolling the feeding of differently sized print media through theslot 150. In order to manually feed a print media sheet into the printer100 in this arrangement, the flap 151 is hinged so as to be lowered orraised and the leading edge of the sheet is fed through the slot 150 soas to impinge on the left hand side (in the orientation of FIG. 15) ofthe guide plate 137 of the print engine assembly 107. The sheet thenprogresses down the guide plate 137 so as to enter the roller assembly142 similar to the process for an automatically fed sheet describedearlier.

When manual feeding is being performed for consecutive sheets, thesupport member 119 of the source tray assembly 103 can be extended asshown in FIG. 18 so that the yet-to-be-fed sheets can be held againstthe upper surface of the head unit 102 and the support member 119. Thissupport is provided by the support member 119 being angled from thevertical due to the above-described angle of the source tray assembly103.

Additional guiding support for the manually fed sheets may be providedas shown in FIG. 20. That is, the flap 151 of the head unit 102 mayalternatively be arranged so as to provide such support for a manuallyfed sheet 110 b by being configured to be larger than the slot 150, seeFIG. 21, and hinged so that part of the flap 151 extends into the headunit 102 and the remaining part of flap 151 projects out of the headunit 102 when manual feeding is desired. As can be seen, in thisarrangement the guide plate 137 is provided within the head unit 102 soas to assist in the supporting position of the flap 151, and the marginelement 152 and the sliding fence 153 are incorporated into the flap151.

Further, as can be seen from FIGS. 20 and 21, the head unit 102 in thisarrangement is configured slightly differently and more compactly fromthe head unit 102 shown in FIGS. 15 and 19, in order to accommodate thelarger flap 151. Due to the more compact size, a direct drive pickerassembly 106 may be used as shown in FIG. 20, which has the motor 127and drive roller 126 on the same axle.

As described earlier, the outer surface of the lower portion 105 of thehousing 101 serves as a collector for collecting the printed sheetswhich exit the print engine assembly 107 through the exit slot 104 b ofthe upper portion 104 of the housing 101. This is done whether theprinted sheet is automatically or manually fed.

In order to securely collect a number of printed sheets 110 a, which mayamount to at least the number of sheets comprised in the stack 110, thecollection area 105 comprises guides or ribs 154 for guiding collectionof the printed sheets 110 a and holding such once collected. To achievethis the guides 105 are substantially L-shaped with a foot 155 locatedat the bottom end of the collection area 105 and a leg 156 runningsubstantially for the length of the collection area 105, as shown inFIG. 1.

As can be seen in FIG. 18, the flat upper surfaces of the feet 155 arealigned parallel with one another and substantially orthogonal to theincline of the collection area 105 so as to provide a stop surface andsupport for the leading edge of the falling printed sheet 110 a. Byusing a plurality of the ribs 154 (e.g., three are shown in the figures)with the feet 155 in parallel-alignment, the consecutively releasedsheets 110 a can be “squared-up” or “knocked-up” so as to provide a neatcollection of the printed sheets 110 a.

The middle rib 154 situated between the two outer ribs 154 is locatedcloser to the right hand side outer rib 154 (as orientated in FIG. 1)than the left hand side outer rib 154. This is so that print mediahaving a width which does not extend for the full width of thecollection area 105, such as the photographic paper shown in FIG. 10aligned in the upper right corner of the tray 115, is properly collectedand knocked-up by the collection area 105.

Further, the middle rib 154 is arranged so that the leg 156 thereofprojects out from the surface of the collection area 105 further thanthe legs 156 of the outer ribs 154. This is illustrated in FIGS. 19 and22, where in the top view of FIG. 19, broken line 157 shows that thelegs 156 of the outer ribs 154 are aligned parallel to one another withrespect to the surface of the collection area 105 whilst the leg 156 ofthe middle rib 154 projects out from the surface beyond line 157, and inthe side view of FIG. 22, the leg 156 of the middle rib 154 is clearlyshown as projecting further from the surface of the collection area 105than that of the outer rib(s) 154.

The legs 156 of the ribs 154 are arranged in this way so that curvatureis imparted to the printed sheets 110 a with a middle portion of each ofthe printed sheets 110 a being situated further from the collection area105 than the edge portions thereof. That is, a lateral curvatureorthogonal to the surface of the collection area 105 is imparted to thecollected sheets, which applies a retaining force on the sheets byallowing the sheets to become more rigid and less inclined to fallforward upon contact with the feet 155. This ensures that the sheets areallowed to settle on the collection area 105 without toppling forwardwhich may effect the image printing thereon. This action is assisted bythe previously-mentioned angle of about 75° to 80° from the horizontalof the collection area 105, upon which angle the legs 156 alsosubstantially lie.

The manner in which the sheet 110 a exits the upper portion 104 of thehousing 101 and is captured on the collection area 105 is shown in FIGS.23A and 23B, respectively. As can be seen from FIG. 23A, the sheet 110 aexits the exit slot 104 b of the upper portion 104 of the housing 101 ina substantially vertical orientation (i.e., in the direction of arrowA). Once the sheet 110 a is released from the exit slot 104 b, as shownin FIG. 23B, the sheet 110 a drops downward under gravity until itsdownward motion is stopped by the leading edge of the sheet 110 a cominginto contact with the feet 155.

As can be seen in FIG. 22, the feet 155 project from the surface of thecollection area 105 substantially orthogonal to this surface. Therefore,the feet 155 are angled about 10° to 15° from the horizontal. As such,upon contact with the feet 155 the sheet 110 a is caused to settle or(slowly) fall back to the surface of the collection area 105 in thedirection of arrow B so as to finally come to rest in the position shownin FIG. 18. As described above, since curvature is imparted to the sheet110 a it becomes relatively rigid thereby reducing the likelihood of thetop portion of the sheet 100 a toppling over causing the sheet 110 a tomove forward off of the collection area 105.

Due to the high-speed printing ability of the printer 100, contactbetween surfaces of printed sheets could have detrimental effects on thequality of the printed image(s), such as smudging and the like which mayoccur due to the relatively short amount of time between the collectionof consecutive sheets, e.g., about one second for 60 ppm printing. Thatis, the ink printed on the surface of the sheets may not have time todry or set before the next sheet contacts and comes to rest on theprevious sheet's surface, such that the ink may bleed between thesheets. The above-described sheet collection arrangement of the presentinvention minimises the possibility of such effects on the printed imageoccurring as follows.

As consecutive printed sheets are delivered vertically to the collectionarea 105, the exposure of the printed sheet to air is maximised as itproceeds along its downward trajectory after exiting the upper portion104 of the housing 101 thereby facilitating increased drying and settingof the printed ink. Further, as the leading edge of the first sheet iscaptured by the feet 155 of the ribs 154, following release of the sheetfrom the upper portion 104, the sheet falls into position against thesurface of the collection area 105 whereby a cushion of air is createdbetween the falling sheet and the collection area 105. For thesuccessive sheets, this cushion of air remains while the sheet settlesand until it comes to rest through this settling motion on thepreviously collected sheet. This cushion of air prior to settling of thesheets assists the drying/setting of the ink printed on the previouslycollect sheet, or on both sheets in the case of duplex printing.

In addition to acting as a means for collecting printouts, the ribs 154of the collection area 105 may also act as a means of providing a userof the printer 100 with an indication of the state of the printer 100and/or the printing being performed thereby. This is achieved by formingthe ribs 154 from light pipes 158 through which light can be emittedindicating such states, where these light pipe 158 are provided withinthe surface of the collection area 105 as shown in FIG. 12.

The structure of one of the light pipes 158 is shown in FIG. 24A. Thelight pipe 158 consists of a hollow transparent material, such asplastic, provided as a light transmitting channel which may be mouldedinto the shape of the ribs 154 or any other desired shape. The innersurface of the hollow material incorporates a lining which is highlyreflective for light striking its surface at certain angles andtransmissive for light striking at other angles. As such, lighttransmitted into the hollow portion is trained so as to flow for thelength of the light pipe 158 and be emitted thereby through its entirelength.

A light source assembly 159 positioned on the light pipe 158, as shownin FIG. 24A, is used to supply light into the hollow portion of thelight pipe 158. The light source assembly 159 may be positioned relativeto the light pipe 158, such as in the position shown in FIG. 24 or atthe end of the light pipe 158, for example. The light source assembly159 may comprise three differently coloured light sources, a red lightsource 160, a green light source 161 and a blue light source 162, asshown in FIG. 24B. Each of the light sources 160-162 may be a LED. Theuse of these different coloured light sources 160-162 allows a widespectrum of colours to be emitted by the light pipe 158 when the lightsources 160-162 are selectively operated either individually or incombination. Alternatively, a single light source capable of multiplecolour emission may be used. As such, different coloured light can beused to indicate different states of the printer 100 and/or the printingbeing performed thereby by controlling the light source assembly 159emission with the control circuitry of the printer 100 and/or the driveelectronics 144 of the print engine assembly 107.

For example, a blue light emitted by the light pipes 158 used as theribs 154 of the collection area 105 may indicate that the printer 100 isin a standby state, whilst a green light may indicate that the printer100 is in the state of printing and a red light may indicate that theprinter 100 is malfunctioning, such as there being a paper jam or therebeing a need for more paper or ink. Other combinations of lighting,strobing, flashing, etc could alternatively be used for such purposes.For example, increased aesthetic appeal of the printer 100 could beprovided by indicating the standby state with a cycle through a spectrumof colours. The operational state of the printer 100, such as theoccurrence of a paper jam, may be determined in a conventional manner asunderstood by those skilled in the art.

The light pipes 158 can also be incorporated into the head unit 102 ofthe printer 100, as shown in FIG. 1. The light pipes 158 of the headunit 102 can be controlled in the same manner as those of the ribs 154,as discussed above, in order to indicate to a user the state of theprinter 100, etc. Further, the combination of the light pipes 158 inboth the head unit 102 and the collection area 105 can be used toindicate the state of different parts of the printer 100 by theindividual operation thereof. Further still, other parts of the printer100 could also be arranged with the light pipes 158 for this purpose.For example, the display of a red light with the light pipes 158 in thehead unit 102 whilst the rest of the light pipes 158 of the printer 100display green light could be used to immediately indicate to a user thatthere is a problem in the area of the head unit 102, such as paper jamor the like, whilst the rest of the printer 100 is functioning normally.In this way the user can easily and quickly identify and address anyproblems with the functioning of the printer 100.

Alternatively, the light pipes 158 may be provided in only one area ofthe printer 100 to indicate the state of the whole of the printer 100.In this case, the light pipes 158 are preferably provided only in thehead unit 102 on the front facing surface thereof about the userinterface 109, as shown in FIG. 1 for example, so as to provide goodvisibility for users. In this arrangement, if a problem arises with thefunctioning of the printer 100, the light pipes 158 of the head unit 102can be used to indicate that a problem has occurred, upon which the usercan refer to the user interface 109 or the print manager software loadedon the user's PC to determine what problem has occurred, and where.

For example, the light pipes 158 may emit blue light to indicate thestandby state of the printer 100, green light to indicate the normaloperation state of the printer 100, orange light to indicate a faultstate of the source tray assembly 103, such as paper jam at the pickerassembly 106 or the source tray assembly 103 not being fully closed withrespect to the housing 101, and purple light to indicate a fault stateof the head unit 102, such as a paper jam at the roller assembly 142 ofthe print engine assembly 107. However, other combinations of colouredlights may be used to indicate the state of the different operationalareas of the printer 100.

The user interface 109 may be a display screen, such as a liquid crystaldisplay, as shown in FIG. 1, used to display information about the stateof the printer 100 and the like, and is preferably a touch screen viawhich users can operate the printer 100. This means that mechanicalbuttons and the like do not need to be provided on the printer 100 whichfacilitates a compact design of the printer 100. However, such buttonscan be provided together with a simple display screen if desired.

The user interface 109 can therefore be used, either alone or incombination with the light pipes 158, to display information as to thestate of the printer 100, such as the ink capacity left in the inkstorage reservoirs of the print engine assembly 107, the occurrence of apaper jam in the transport system, as well as command and informationmenus, etc for the operation of the printer 100. To achieve this, theuser interface 109 may further comprise a memory and a processor (notshown) for storing software for such menus and processing commands inputby the user by touching areas of the touch screen. Alternatively, suchcomponents may be provided by the drive electronics 144 of the printengine assembly 107 with suitable connections between the user interface109 and the drive electronics 144 being provided in the head unit 102and the upper portion 104 of the housing 101.

The command and information menus displayed by the user interface 109can also be used to display information on print jobs being, or to be,performed by the printer 100. In order to receive print jobs, theprinter 100 may be connected directly to a user terminal (not shown),such as a PC, or connected to a plurality of such terminals via anetwork, which terminal(s) transmit the print jobs to the driveelectronics 144 of the print engine assembly 107 for processing andprinting by the printhead 140. Such menus can also be easily adapted todisplay in different languages, etc, which is convenient for providingthe printer 100 for use in different countries. In this way the userinterface 109 is able to display information to a user regarding theoperation of the printer 100 which is more useful than that which istypically provided at the print manager level on a PC connected to theprinter, which is typically the case for conventional desktop printers.

This connection can be provided in a wired manner via a Pictbridgeconnector 163 situated in the collection area 105 area of the housing101, as shown in FIG. 1, which allows for connection between theterminals and the printer 100. The Pictbridge connector 163 ispositioned below the paper collection surfaces of the feet 155 of thecollection area 105 so that a cable connected thereto (not shown) doesnot to interfere with the printout collection. However, the Pictbridgeconnector 163 may instead be positioned on the side or rear of thehousing 101, or within the base unit 112.

Alternatively, the connection between the terminals and the printer 100can be provided in a wireless manner by using a WIFI card 164 and/or aBluetooth® card 165 located in the inner section of the housing 101, asshown in FIGS. 7 and 12.

Alternatively still, or in addition, the printer 100 may incorporatemeans for directly receiving image data for the print jobs byincorporating slots 166 and 167, such as those shown in FIG. 25 in oneof the side portions 105 b of the lower portion 105 of the housing 101.The slots 166 and 167 are arranged to receive photocards and the like sothat images stored thereon can be downloaded to the printer's 100 or thedrive electronics' 144 memory for direct printing.

Power for the user interface 109, the print engine assembly 107(particularly for the motor 143 of the roller assembly 142, theprinthead 140, the drive electronics 144 and the capping unit 145), thepicker assembly 106 (particularly for the motor 127 of the drive roller126), the light pipes 158 and other electronic components of the printer100 is supplied from an external power source (not shown) via a powerconnector 168 and power supply unit (PSU) 169 provided in the base unit112, as shown in FIGS. 7, 11 and 26. Corresponding connections from thePSU 169 to the various electronic components can be provided viasuitable wiring housed within the inner section and upper portion 104 ofthe housing 101 of the printer 100.

As can be seen from FIG. 26, in which a cover 112 e of the base unit 112(see FIGS. 4 and 7) has been removed from a support portion 112 fthereof, the base unit 112 not only provides a base for holding thehousing 101 and source tray assembly 103 in a substantially verticalorientation but also provides for the various connections of the printer100. That is, in addition to the power connector 168, the base unit 112may also hold a USB connector 170 and an Ethernet connector 171, forconnection to external devices/terminals and networks, for the reasonsdiscussed earlier. As with the power connections, correspondingconnections from the connectors 170 and 171, and also from the carddevices 164 and 165 and the Pictbridge connector 163, to the variousdata components of the printer 100 can be provided via suitable wiringhoused within the inner section and upper portion 104 of the printer100.

The support portion 112 f of the base unit 112 extends from the bottomportion of the base unit 112 to the rear of the printer 100 so as toprovide additional support for the assembled printer 100, particularlysince the housing 101 and the source tray assembly 103 are angled fromthe vertical towards the rear of the printer 100. Further, the cover 112e is arranged on the support portion 112 f and is easily removable togain access to the connectors 168, 170 and 171 for connection tocorresponding device/terminal cables (not shown). The cover 112 e isconveniently able to be placed on the support portion 112 f even whencables are connected as space is provided for accommodating the plugs onthe end of the cables and a gap 112 g is provided for accommodating thecables themselves (see FIG. 3). Feet portions 112 h are also provided onthe bottom of the base unit 112 for providing stability to thesubstantially vertical printer 100, as shown in FIGS. 3, 22 and 27.

Apart from serving the above-mentioned purposes of providing a supportfor the housing 101, the head unit 102 and the source tray assembly 103,and connections for power and data, the base unit 112 may also bearranged on a stand assembly 172 for the printer 100 as shown in FIGS.28 and 29.

The stand assembly 172 enables the printer 100 to be easily convertedfrom a pure “desktop” printer to a stand-alone printer. This providesfor even greater desk space in a home or office environment. Further,the stand assembly 172 is provided with a similar footprint to that ofthe printer 100, such that the assembled printer 100 and stand assembly172 continues to provide a relatively small footprint printing system.

As shown in FIG. 29, an upper frame portion 173 of the stand assembly172 is arranged so as to conform to the shape of the bottom of the baseunit 112, including the support portion 112 f of the base unit 112,which is shown in FIG. 27. In this way, the base unit 112 is locked tothe upper frame portion 173 by a nesting arrangement, thereby providingsecure assembly of the printer 100 to the stand assembly 172.

Cables 174 from external devices/terminals for connection to theconnectors 168, 170 and 171 provided in the base unit 112 areaccommodated in a cable housing 175 which is held at a top end thereofby the upper frame portion 173 at the rear of the stand assembly 172.The cable housing 175 comprises a cover 176 which neatly and safelyencloses the cables 174, whilst being removable so as to provide quickaccess thereto. A handle 177 is provided at the top of the cable housing175 on the upper frame portion 173 for easy transport of the assembledprinter 100 and stand assembly 172.

A lower frame portion 178 and a base plate 179, to which the lower frameportion 178 is attached, are provided at the bottom of the standassembly 172. The base plate 179 provides sufficient stability to theassembled printer 100 and stand assembly 172 whilst retaining arelatively small footprint, whilst the lower frame portion 178 is shapedsimilar to the upper frame portion 173 so as to hold the bottom end ofthe cable housing 175. The upper and lower frame portions 173 and 178hold a frame 180 therebetween within which one or more print media trays181 may be arranged.

As can be seen, each of the print media trays 181 are provided at anangle to the vertical so as to each be able to hold a stack of printmedia, such as paper. The trays 181 may be used to store paper forprinting and/or paper that has been printed. The frame 180 is shown inFIGS. 28 and 29 arranged with three of the trays 181, however a greateror lesser number of the trays may be provided in accordance with thepresent invention.

The provision of a plurality of trays 181 provides storage for stacks ofdifferent sized print media for printing. That is, if printing ondifferent sized paper than is presently loaded in the source trayassembly 103 of the printer 100 is required, it is a simple task for auser to source this paper from the trays 181 to replace the paper in thesource tray assembly 103 or manually feed this paper into the printer100. Further, the plurality of trays 181 can be used to hold additionalstacks of the most common paper size used with the printer 100 so as toprovide an efficient means of reloading the source tray assembly 103when the need for such is indicated to a user via the light pipes 158and/or the user interface 109, for example.

The provision of the plurality of trays 181 may also provide a means tocollate different print job outputs. That is, in a network printingenvironment, say, it may be necessary to collate the outputs of a numberof users since those users may not immediately collect their printouts.Such manual collation may be needed due to the high-speed printingcapability of the printer 100 through which many outputs may be producedin a relatively short amount of time.

The trays 181 are arranged to slide into place in the frame 180 so thatthe inner edges 181 a thereof rest on the cable housing 175 (see FIG.29). Further, the upper and lower frame portions 173 and 178 arearranged to removably receive the frame 180 and cable housing 195therein. In this way, the stand assembly 172 is provided as a modularassembly of the above-mentioned parts such that it is easily assembledand disassembled. In its disassembled state, the stand assembly 172presents a number of compact parts which can be easily packaged with theparts of the disassembled printer 100, i.e., the separate parts of thehousing 101, the head unit 102, the source tray assembly 103, the pickerassembly 106, the print engine assembly 107 and the base unit 112. Inorder to facilitate assembly/disassembly and the mobility of theassembled printer 100 and stand assembly 172, the components of thestand assembly 172 are preferably made from a lightweight material, suchas plastic.

Exemplary construction and operation of the vertical printer of thepresent invention is now described.

For the desktop printer 100 configured to print on A4 paper as being themaximum-sized paper, the pagewidth printhead 140 of the print engineassembly 107 has a printhead width of 224 mm or 8.8 inches. In order toform this printing width the printhead 140 comprises a plurality ofprinthead integrated circuits (ICs) incorporating printing or inkejecting nozzles therein, such as those described in the presentApplicant's above-referenced applications RRA01US to RRA33US.

In accordance with the present invention, at least 5,000 nozzles may beincorporated to provide the required quality of printing, i.e., at least1600 dpi, at the high-speed of at least 30 ppm, preferably at least 60ppm. However, depending upon the printing quality and speed required,the printhead may comprise at least 10,000 nozzles, preferably at least20,000 nozzles, and more preferably at least 50,000 nozzles inhigher-speed, higher-quality printing applications.

These nozzles are arranged as a two-dimensional array across the widthof the printhead so as to eject ink, and other printing fluids such asfixative, onto the surface of the passing print media in order to printimages thereon. Each of the nozzles corresponds to a printed dot on theprint media, and therefore the larger the number of nozzles and thegreater the packing density thereof in the printhead the closer theprinted dots, and therefore the higher the resolution of the printing.The drive electronics 144 receives and processes image data from anexternal data source, via one or more of the data connectors 163, 170and 171 or data devices 164 and 165, and drives the nozzles of theprinthead in accordance with the processed image data (explained in moredetail later).

With respect to the type of nozzle systems which are applicable for theprinthead 140, any type of ink jet nozzle array which can be integratedon a printhead IC is suitable. That is, systems such as a continuous inksystem, an electrostatic system and a drop-on-demand system, includingthermal and piezoelectric types, can be used.

Regarding a thermal drop-on-demand system, there are various types knownwhich typically include ink reservoirs adjacent the nozzles and heaterelements in thermal contact therewith. The heater elements heat the inkwhich creates gas bubbles therein. The gas bubbles generate pressures inthe ink causing droplets to be ejected through the nozzles onto theprint media. The amount of ink ejected onto the print media by eachnozzle and when this occurs is controlled by the drive electronics. Suchthermal systems impose limitations on the type of ink that can be usedhowever, since the ink must be resistant to heat, and also require acooling process which can reduce the optimum printing speed.

Regarding a piezoelectric drop-on-demand system, various types are alsoknown which typically use piezo-crystals arranged adjacent the inkreservoirs which are caused to flex when an electric current flowstherethrough. This flexing causes droplets of ink to be ejected from thenozzles in a similar manner to the thermal systems described above. Suchpiezoelectric systems allow more control over the shape and size of theink droplets than the thermal systems and the ink does not have to beheated and cooled between cycles, giving a greater range of availableink types.

Further, a micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) of nozzles could beused which includes thermo-actuators which cause the nozzles to ejectink droplets. Such nozzle systems are described in the presentApplicant's following co-pending and granted applications:

-   -   U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,188,415; 6,209,989; 6,213,588; 6,213,589;        6,217,153; 6,220,694; 6,227,652; 6,227,653; 6,227,654;        6,231,163; 6,234,609; 6,234,610; 6,234,611; 6,238,040;        6,338,547; 6,239,821; 6,241,342; 6,243,113; 6,244,691;        6,247,790; 6,247,791; 6,247,792; 6,247,793; 6,247,794;        6,247,795; 6,247,796; 6,254,220; 6,257,704; 6,257,705;        6,260,953; 6,264,306; 6,264,307; 6,267,469; 6,283,581;        6,283,582; 6,293,653; 6,302,528; 6,312,107; 6,336,710;        6,362,843; 6,390,603; 6,394,581; 6,416,167; 6,416,168;        6,557,977; 6,273,544; 6,299,289; 6,299,290; 6,309,048;        6,378,989; 6,420,196; 6,425,654; 6,439,689; 6,443,558; and        6,634,735, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/425,420, U.S.        Pat. Nos. 6,623,101; 6,406,129; 6,457,809; 6,457,812; 6,505,916;        6,550,895; 6,428,133; 6,305,788; 6,315,399; 6,322,194;        6,322,195; 6,328,425; 6,328,431; 6,338,548; 6,364,453;        6,383,833; 6,390,591; 6,390,605; 6,417,757; 6,425,971;        6,426,014; 6,428,139; 6,428,142; 6,439,693; 6,439,908;        6,457,795; 6,502,306; 6,565,193; 6,588,885; 6,595,624;        6,460,778; 6,464,332; 6,478,406; 6,480,089; 6,540,319;        6,575,549; 6,609,786; 6,609,787; 6,612,110; 6,623,106;        6,629,745; 6,652,071; 6,659,590, U.S. patent application Ser.        Nos. 09/575,127; 09/575,152; 09/575,176; 09/575,177; 09/608,780;        09/693,079; 09/693,135; 09/693,735; 10/129,433; 10/129,437;        10/129,503; 10/407,207; and 10/407,212, Filing Docket Nos.        JUM003 and JUM004, U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 10/302,274;        10/302,297; 10/302,577; 10/302,617; 10/302,618; 10/302,644;        10/302,668; 10/302,669; 10/303,312; 10/303,348; 10/303,352; and        10/303,433, and Filing Docket Nos. MTB01 to MTB14, the        disclosures of which are all incorporated herein by reference.        Some of the above applications have been identified by their        filing docket number, which will be substituted with the        corresponding application number, once assigned.

Description of an exemplary MEMS nozzle system applicable to theprinthead 140 is provided below, as is an exemplary manner in which thedrive electronics processes the image data and drives such a nozzlesystem, with reference the FIGS. 30 to 43.

FIG. 30 shows an array of nozzle arrangements 182. The nozzlearrangements 182 shown are identical, however different nozzlearrangements 182 may used which are fed with different colored inks andfixative. Preferably, the printhead 140 is configured with the nozzlearrangements 182 in rows, with one row each to print in one of 5colours: Cyan; Magenta; Yellow; blacK (“CMYK”); and InfraRed (“IR”), andone row to print Fixative (“F”). CMY is provided for regular colourprinting, K is provided for black text, line graphics and greyscaleprinting, IR is provided for applications requiring “invisible”printing, and F is provided to assist in the prevention of smudging ofthe printouts at high-speed.

The printhead 140 can however be adapted to print using any desirednumber of colours, and can comprise a monolithic printhead IC or requiremultiple substrates depending upon implementation. Further, the rows ofthe nozzle arrangements 182 are staggered with respect to each other,allowing closer spacing of ink dots during printing than would bepossible with a single row of nozzles. The multiple rows also allow forredundancy (if desired), thereby allowing for a predetermined failurerate per nozzle.

The printhead ICs of the printhead 140 are manufactured using anintegrated circuit fabrication technique and, as previously indicated,embody a micro-electromechanical system (MEMS). Referring to FIG. 31,which shows a single nozzle, each printhead IC includes a silicon wafersubstrate 183 and CMOS microprocessing circuitry formed thereon. This isdone by depositing a silicon dioxide layer 184 on the substrate 183 as adielectric layer and aluminium electrode contact layers 185 on thesilicon dioxide layer 184. Both the substrate 183 and the layer 184 areetched to define an ink channel 186, and an aluminium diffusion barrier187 is positioned about the ink channel 186.

A passivation layer 188 of silicon nitride is deposited over thealuminium contact layers 185 and the layer 184. Portions of thepassivation layer 188 that are positioned over the contact layers 185have openings 189 therein to provide access to the contact layers 185.

Each nozzle includes a nozzle chamber 190 which is defined by a nozzlewall 191, a nozzle roof 192 and a radially inner nozzle rim 193. The inkchannel 186 is in fluid communication with the chamber 190.

A moveable rim 194, that includes a movable seal lip 195, is located atthe lower end of the nozzle wall 191. An encircling wall 196 surroundsthe nozzle and provides a stationery seal lip 197 that, when the nozzleis at rest as shown in FIG. 31, is adjacent the moveable rim 194. Afluidic seal 198 is formed due to the surface tension of ink trappedbetween the stationery seal lip 197 and the moveable seal lip 195. Thisprevents leakage of ink from the chamber whilst providing a lowresistance coupling between the encircling wall 196 and the nozzle wall191.

The nozzle wall 191 forms part of lever arrangement that is mounted to acarrier 199 having a generally U-shaped profile with a base 200 attachedto the layer 188. The lever arrangement also includes a lever arm 201that extends from the nozzle wall and incorporates a lateral stiffeningbeam 202. The lever arm 201 is attached to a pair of passive beams 203that are formed from titanium nitride and are positioned at each side ofthe nozzle, (best seen in FIGS. 34 and 35). The other ends of thepassive beams 203 are attached to the carriers 199.

The lever arm 201 is also attached to an actuator beam 204, which isformed from TiN. This attachment to the actuator beam is made at a pointwhich is a small, but critical, distance higher than the attachments tothe passive beam 203.

As can best be seen from FIGS. 34 and 35, the actuator beam 204 issubstantially U-shaped in plan, defining a current path between anelectrode 205 and an opposite electrode 206. Each of the electrodes 205and 206 is electrically connected to a respective point in the contactlayer 185. The actuator beam 204 is also mechanically secured to ananchor 207, and the anchor 207 is configured to constrain motion of theactuator beam 204 to the left of FIGS. 31 to 33 when the nozzlearrangement is activated.

The actuator beam 204 is conductive, being composed of TiN, but has asufficiently high enough electrical resistance to generate self-heatingwhen a current is passed between the electrodes 205 and 206. No currentflows through the passive beams 203, so they do not experience thermalexpansion.

In operation, the nozzle is filled with ink 208 that defines a meniscus209 under the influence of surface tension. The ink 208 is retained inthe chamber 190 by the meniscus 209, and will not generally leak out inthe absence of some other physical influence.

To fire ink from the nozzle, a current is passed between the contacts205 and 206, passing through the actuator beam 204. The self-heating ofthe beam 204 causes it to expand, with the actuator beam 204 beingdimensioned and shaped so that it expands predominantly in a horizontaldirection with respect to FIGS. 31 to 33. The expansion is constrainedto the left by the anchor 207, so the end of the actuator beam 204adjacent the lever arm 201 is impelled to the right.

The relative horizontal inflexibility of the passive beams 203 preventsthem from allowing much horizontal movement of the lever arm 201.However, the relative displacement of the attachment points of thepassive beams and actuator beam respectively to the lever arm causes atwisting movement that, in turn, causes the lever arm 201 to movegenerally downwardly with a pivoting or hinging motion. However, theabsence of a true pivot point means that rotation is about a pivotregion defined by bending of the passive beams 203.

The downward movement (and slight rotation) of the lever arm 201 isamplified by the distance of the nozzle wall 191 from the passive beams203. The downward movement of the nozzle walls and roof causes apressure increase within the chamber 190, causing the meniscus 209 tobulge as shown in FIG. 32. The surface tension of the ink causes thefluid seal 198 to be stretched by this motion, however ink is notallowed to leak out.

As shown in FIG. 33, at the appropriate time the drive current isstopped and the actuator beam 204 quickly cools and contracts. Thiscontraction causes the lever arm 201 to commence its return to thequiescent position, which in turn causes a reduction in pressure in thechamber 190. The interplay of the momentum of the bulging ink and itsinherent surface tension, and the negative pressure caused by the upwardmovement of the nozzle chamber 190 causes thinning, and ultimatelysnapping, of the bulging meniscus 209 to define an ink drop 210 thatcontinues upwards until it contacts passing print media.

Immediately after the drop 210 detaches, the meniscus 209 forms theconcave shape shown in FIG. 33. Surface tension causes the pressure inthe chamber 190 to remain relatively low until ink has been suctionedupwards through the inlet 186, which returns the nozzle arrangement andthe ink to the quiescent state shown in FIG. 31.

In order to control the delivery of the drops from each of the nozzles,the print engine assembly 107 uses the drive electronics 144. Asdescribed earlier, the drive electronics 144 receives image data ofprint jobs to be printed by the printer 100. Referring to FIG. 36, thisimage data may be received from an external data source, such as acomputer system or user's PC 211. The PC 211 is programmed to performvarious steps involved in printing image data (i.e., a document),including receiving the document (step 212), buffering and rasterisingthe document to provide a page description (steps 213 and 214) andcompressing this to provide a page image (step 215) suitable fortransmission to the print engine assembly 107 of the printer 100.

At the drive electronics 144 of the print engine assembly 107 providedin the printer 100, the compressed, multi-layered page image is buffered(step 216) and then expanded to separate the different layers of thepage image (step 217). The expanded contone layer is dithered (step 218)and then the black layer is composited over the dithered contone layer(step 219). Coded data can also be rendered (step 220) to form anadditional layer, to be printed using infrared ink, for example, that issubstantially invisible to the human eye. The black, dithered contoneand infrared layers are combined (step 221) to form a page that issupplied to the printhead 140 for printing (step 222), which asmentioned above, is preferably configured to print in 5 colours.

Further, the document data is preferably divided into a high-resolutionbi-level mask layer for text and line art and a medium-resolutioncontone colour image layer for images or background colours. Optionally,coloured text can be supported by the addition of amedium-to-high-resolution contone texture layer for texturing text andline art with colour data taken from an image or from flat colours. Thecontone layers are generalised by representing them in abstract “image”and “texture” layers which can refer to either image data or flat colourdata. This division of data into layers based on content follows thebase mode Mixed Raster Content (MRC) model known to those skilled in theart. Like the MRC base mode, compromises are made in some cases whendata to be printed overlap. For example, all overlaps may be reduced toa 3-layer representation in a process (collision resolution) embodyingthe compromises explicitly.

The central data structure is a generalised representation of the threelayers, called a page element 223, shown in a simplified UML diagram inFIG. 37. The page element 223 can be used to represent units rangingfrom single rendered elements emerging from a rendering engine up to anentire band of a print job. Conceptually, the bi-level symbol regionselects between the two colour sources, as described in more detailbelow with reference to FIGS. 37 and 38. It will be appreciated that thedevice components shown in FIG. 38, which carry out the steps 212 to 222shown in FIG. 36, will typically be device dependent, in that theyprocess the data into a form required by a software or hardwarecomponent further downstream.

In FIG. 38, a renderer 224 is provided outside of the more generalprinter system pipeline shown in FIG. 36 in order to render files to beprinted and deliver the rendered elements to a data receiver 225 (step212) of the pipeline, using an Application Programming Interface (API)exposed by the data receiver 225 for that purpose. The rendered elementsare delivered in order according to the painter's algorithm, which iswell known to those skilled in the art. The data passed in through theAPI is converted by the data receiver 225 into lists of dictionaries andpage elements for processing in later stages.

The data is then rasterised (step 214 in FIG. 36) as follows. Acollision resolver 226 accepts the simple page elements created by thedata receiver 225 (via buffering at step 213) and creates a fully opaque“resolved” page element for each intersection of a new element with thebackground and any elements already present. Fundamentally, thecollision resolver 226 guarantees that the entire page is tiled withopaque elements. A stripper 227 divides a band of data into horizontallyoverlapping pieces, which is performed since the printer 100 isrelatively fast and as such uses multiple parallel devices in order toachieve the required output dot-rate. In such cases, each horizontallyoverlapping piece is fed into a corresponding device downstream. Wheresuch data division is not required, the stripper 227 can be omitted.

Different printing configurations will require different configurationsof layers for delivery to the downstream hardware. A layer reorganiser228 converts 3-layer page elements to the appropriate 2- or 3-layer formfor the specific configuration. Again, there may be cases in which thisfunction is not required, in which case the layer organiser 228 can beomitted. A contone combiner 229 combines and clips the image and texturelayers of all page elements in a strip into single image and texturelayers, as required by downstream hardware.

A colour converter 230 transforms the contone planes of all pageelements from the input colour space to a device-specific colour space(which is usually CMYK). A mask combiner 231 performs the same operationon the mask layer as the contone combiner 229 performs on the contonelayers. All elements are clipped to a strip boundary and drawn into asingle mask buffer.

A densitometer 232 measures the density of the current page as apercentage of total possible density. This operation is necessary whenthe power supply of the printer 100 is not able to handle a fully densepage at full speed. A contone compressor 233 compresses the contonelayers of all page elements in order to reduce downstream memory and/ortransmission bandwidth requirements. A mask formatter 234 converts themask layer of page elements, which may be represented as regions ofplaced symbol references, into the form expected by a downstream maskdecompressor.

A size limiter 235 ensures that all size limitations, for bands and forentire pages, are adhered to, by either dividing bands into smallerbands or by recompressing the data, repeating until the constraint issatisfied. If data is to be transmitted to the printer 100 betweenpipeline stages, a serialised form of the data structures is generated(in a serialiser 236), transmitted, then deserialised (in a deserialiser237).

Within the drive electronics 144 of the print engine assembly 107incorporated in the printer 100, a distributor 238 converts data from aproprietary representation into a hardware-specific representation andensures that the data for each strip is sent to the correct hardwaredevice whilst observing any constraints or requirements on datatransmission to these devices. The distributor 238 distributes theconverted data to an appropriate one of a plurality of pipelines 239.The pipelines 239 are identical to each other, and in essence providedecompression, scaling and dot compositing functions to generate a setof printable dot outputs for the nozzles of the printhead 140.

Each pipeline 239 includes a buffer 240 for receiving the page imagedata from the PC 211 (step 216 in FIG. 36). A contone decompressor 241decompresses the colour contone planes and a mask decompressor 242decompresses the monotone (text) layer (step 217 in FIG. 36). Further, acontone scaler 243 and a mask scaler 244 are provided to scale thedecompressed contone and mask planes, respectively, to take into accountthe size of the print media onto which the processed page is to beprinted by the printhead 140.

The scaled contone planes are then dithered by a ditherer 245 usingstochastic dispersed-dot dither (step 218 in FIG. 36). Clustered-dot, oramplitude-modulated, dither is not used since dispersed-dot, orfrequency-modulated, dither reproduces high spatial frequencies (i.e.,image detail) almost to the limits of the dot resolution whilesimultaneously reproducing lower spatial frequencies to their fullcolour depth when spatially integrated by the eye. A stochastic dithermatrix is carefully designed to be relatively free of objectionablelow-frequency patterns when tiled across the image. As such, its sizetypically exceeds the minimum size required to support a particularnumber of intensity levels (e.g., 16×16×8 bits for 257 intensitylevels).

The dithered planes are then composited in a dot compositor 246 on adot-by-dot basis to provide dot data suitable for printing (steps 219and 221 in FIG. 36). This data is forwarded to data distribution anddrive circuitry 247, which in turn distributes the data to the correctnozzle actuators 204 of the printhead 140 which in turn cause ink to beejected from the correct nozzles at the correct time (step 222 in FIG.36).

In the above system, a mainly software-based PC portion 211 is providedprior to the serialiser 236, and a mainly hardware-based print engineassembly portion 107, that is located within the printer 100 remote fromthe PC 211, is provided including everything from the deserialiser 237onwards. It will be appreciated, however, that the indicated divisionbetween computer system and printer is somewhat arbitrary, and variouscomponents can be placed on different sides of the divide withoutsubstantially altering the operation as a whole. It will also beappreciated that some of the device components can be handled inhardware or software remotely from the computer system and printer. Forexample, rather than relying on the general-purpose processor of the PC,some of the components in the architecture can be accelerated usingdedicated hardware.

Preferably, the hardware pipelines 239 are embodied in a controller ofthe print engine assembly 107, which also preferably includes one ormore system on a chip (SoC) components, as well as the print engineassembly pipeline control application specific logic, configured toperform some or all of the functions described above in relation to theprinting pipeline.

Referring to FIG. 39, from the highest point of view the controller ofthe print engine assembly 107 consists of three distinct subsystems: acentral processing unit (CPU) subsystem 248, a dynamic random accessmemory (DRAM) subsystem 249 and a print engine assembly pipeline (PEP)subsystem 250. Various components of these subsystems 248 to 250 aredescribed below, with a more detailed description of these components,including their various functions, being provided later in Tables 1 to3.

The CPU subsystem 248 includes a CPU 251 that controls and configuresall aspects of the other subsystems and provides general support forinterfacing and synchronizing the various components of the printer 100with the print engine assembly 107. It also controls the low-speedcommunication to Quality Assurance (QA) devices (described in moredetail later). The CPU subsystem 248 also contains various peripheralsto aid the CPU 251, such as General Purpose Input Output (“GPIO”), whichincludes motor control, etc, Interrupt Controller Unit (“ICU”),Low-Speed Serial (“LSS”) master and general Timers (“TIM”).

The DRAM subsystem 249 accepts requests from the CPU 251, SerialCommunications Block (“SCB”) on the CPU subsystem 248, which provides afull speed USB1.1 interface to the host as well as an Interface (“INT”)to other controllers of the print engine assembly 107 and blocks withinthe PEP subsystem 250. The DRAM subsystem 249, and in particular DRAMInterface Unit (“DIU”) thereof, arbitrates the various requests anddetermines which request should win access to DRAM incorporated therein.DIU arbitrates based on configured parameters, to allow sufficientaccess to DRAM for all requesters. DIU also hides the implementationspecifics of DRAM, such as page size, number of banks and refresh rates.

The PEP subsystem 250 accepts compressed pages from DRAM and rendersthem to bi-level dots for a given print line destined for PrintHeadInterface (“PHI”) that communicates directly with the printhead ICs ofthe printhead 140. The first stage of the page expansion pipelineincludes Contone Decoder Unit (“CDU”), Lossless Bi-level Decoder (“LBD”)and Tag Encoder (“TE”). CDU expands the JPEG-compressed contone(typically CMYK) layers, LBD expands the compressed bi-level layer(typically K), and TE encodes infrared tags for later rendering(typically in IR or K ink). The output from the first stage is a set ofbuffers: Contone FIFO Unit (“CFU”); Spot FIFO Unit (“SFU”); and Tag FIFOUnit (“TFU”). CFU and SFU buffers are implemented in dynamic randomaccess memory.

The second stage includes Halftone Compositor Unit (“HCU”), whichdithers the contone layer and composites position tags and the bi-levelspot layer over the resulting bi-level dithered layer. A number ofcompositing options can be implemented, depending upon the printhead 140with which the controller is used. Up to six channels of bi-level dataare produced from this stage, although not all channels may be presenton the printhead 140. For example, the printhead 140 may be CMY only,with K pushed into the CMY channels and IR ignored. Alternatively, theencoded tags may be printed in K if IR ink is not available (or fortesting purposes).

In the third stage, Dead Nozzle Compensator (“DNC”) compensates for deadnozzles in the printhead 140 by colour redundancy and error diffusing ofdead nozzle data into surrounding dots. The resultant bi-level sixchannel dot-data (typically CMYK, IR and fixative) is buffered andwritten to a set of line buffers stored in DRAM via Dotline Writer Unit(DWU). Finally, the dot-data is loaded back from DRAM, and passed to PHIvia a dot FIFO (not shown). The dot FIFO accepts data from Line LoaderUnit (“LLU”) at the system clock rate, while PHI removes data from thedot FIFO and sends it to the printhead 140 at a rate of ⅔ times thesystem clock rate.

The details and functions of the above-described components of thesubsystems 248 to 250 and those shown in FIG. 39 but not described aboveare provided in Tables 1 to 3 below, for the CPU subsystem 248, the DRAMsubsystem 249 and the PEP subsystem 250, respectively. TABLE 1 AcronymComponent Description DIU DRAM Provides an interface for Interface UnitDRAM read and write access for the various controllers, the CPU 251 andSCB block, arbitration between competing units and controls access toDRAM DRAM (embedded) 20 Mbits of embedded DRAM DRAM

TABLE 2 Acronym Component Description CPU Central For systemconfiguration and control Processing Unit MMU Memory Limits access tocertain memory Management Unit address areas in CPU user mode RDUReal-time Facilitates the observation of the Debug Unit contents of mostof the CPU addressable registers in the controller, in addition to somepseudo-registers in real time TIM (general) Timer Contains watchdog andgeneral system timers LSS Low-Speed Serial Low level controller forinterfacing interfaces with the QA devices GPIO General Purpose GeneralIO controller with built-in Input/Outputs motor control and LED pulseunits and de-glitch circuitry ROM Boot ROM 16 KBytes of System Boot ROMcode ICU Interrupt General Purpose interrupt controller Controller Unitwith configurable priority, and masking CPR Clock, Power Central Unitfor controlling and and Reset block generating the system clocks andresets and power-down mechanisms PSS Power Save Storage retained whilesystem is Storage powered down USB Universal Serial USB devicecontroller for interfacing Bus device with the host USB INT InterfaceInterface controller for data and control communication with othercontrollers in a multiple controller print engine assembly 107 SCBSerial Contains both USB and Interface blocks Communication Block

TABLE 3 Acronym Component Description PCU PEP controller Provides theCPU 251 with the means to read and write PEP Unit registers, and readand write DRAM in single 32- bit chunks CDU Contone Expands JPEGcompressed contone Decoder Unit layer and writes decompressed contone toDRAM CFU Contone Provides line buffering between CDU FIFO Unit and HCULED Lossless Expands compressed bi-level layer Bi-level Decoder SFU SpotFIFO Unit Provides line buffering between LBD and HCU TE Tag EncoderEncodes tag data into line of tag dots TFU Tag FIFO Unit Provides tagdata storage between TE and HCU HCU Halftoner Dithers contone layer andcomposites Compositor Unit the bi-level spot and position tag dots DNCDead Nozzle Compensates for dead nozzles by colour Compensatorredundancy and error diffusing dead nozzle data into surrounding dotsDWU Dotline Writes out the six channels of dot data Writer Unit for agiven print-line to a line store DRAM LLU Line Reads the expanded pageimage from Loader Unit the line store, formatting the data appropriatelyfor the printhead 140 PHI PrintHead Responsible for sending dot data tothe Interface nozzles of the printhead 140 and for providing linesynchronization between multiple controllers, and provides a testinterface to the printhead 140 such as temperature monitoring and deadnozzle identification

Preferably, DRAM of the DRAM subsystem 249 is 2.5 Mbytes in size, ofwhich about 2 Mbytes are available for compressed page store data. Acompressed page is received in two or more bands, with a number of bandsstored in memory. As a band of the page is consumed by the PEP subsystem250 for printing, a new band can be downloaded. The new band may be forthe current page or the next page. Using banding it is possible to beginprinting a page before the complete compressed page is downloaded, butcare must be taken to ensure that data is always available for printingor a buffer under-run may occur.

The embedded USB 1.1 device accepts compressed page data and controlcommands from the PC 211 (FIG. 36), and facilitates the data transfer toeither DRAM, or to another controller in a multiple controller printengine assembly. A multiple controller print engine assembly 107 may beused to perform different functions depending upon the particularimplementation. For example, in some cases a controller can be usedsimply for its onboard DRAM, while another controller attends to thevarious decompression and formatting functions described above. This canreduce the chance of buffer under-run, which can happen in the eventthat the printhead 140 commences printing a page prior to all the datafor that page being received and the rest of the data is not received intime. Adding an extra controller for its memory buffering capabilitiesdoubles the amount of data that can be buffered, even if none of theother capabilities of the additional controller are utilized.

Each controller may have several QA devices designed to cooperate witheach other to ensure the quality of the mechanics of the printer 100,the quality of the ink supply so the nozzles of the printhead 140 willnot be damaged during printing and the quality of the software to ensurethe printhead 140 and the mechanics of the printer 100 are not damaged.

Normally, each controller of the print engine assembly 107 will have anassociated QA device (not shown) which stores information on theattributes of the printer 100, such as the maximum printing speed. Thecartridge unit 139 of the print engine assembly 107 also contains an inkQA device (not shown) which stores information on the cartridge unit139, such as the amount of ink remaining in the ink storage and handlingreservoirs 141. The printhead 140 also has a QA device (not shown) whichis configured to act as a ROM (effectively as an EEPROM) that storesprinthead-specific information such as dead nozzle mapping and thecharacteristics of the printhead 140. The CPU 251 in the CPU subsystem248 of the controller also runs a logical (software) QA device (notshown) and may optionally load and run program code from a QA devicethat effectively acts as a serial EEPROM. Generally, all of the QAdevices are physically identical, with only the contents of flash memorydifferentiating one from the other.

Each controller has two LSS system buses that can communicate with QAdevices for system authentication and ink usage accounting. A largenumber of QA devices can be used per bus and their position in thesystem is unrestricted with the exception that printhead QA and ink QAdevices should be on separate LSS busses.

In use, the logical QA device communicates with the ink QA device todetermine remaining ink. The reply from the ink QA device isauthenticated with reference to the printhead QA device. Theverification from the printhead QA device is itself authenticated by thelogical QA device, thereby indirectly adding an additionalauthentication level to the reply from the ink QA device.

Data passed between the QA devices, other than the printhead QA device,is authenticated by way of digital signatures. For example, HMAC-SHA1authentication may be used for data, and RSA may be used for programcode, although other schemes could be used instead.

A single controller can control a plurality of the printhead ICs of theprinthead 140 and up to the six printing fluid channels (e.g., CMYK, IRand F). However, the controller is preferably colour space agnostic.Such that, although the controller can accept contone data as CMYX orRGBX, where X is an optional 4th channel, it also can accept contonedata in any print colour space. Additionally, the controller provides amechanism for arbitrary mapping of input channels to output channels,including combining dots for ink optimization and generation of channelsbased on any number of other channels. However, inputs are typicallyCMYK for contone input, K for the bi-level input, the optional IR tagdots are typically rendered to an infrared layer, and a fixative channelis generated due to the high-speed printing capability.

Further, the controller is also preferably resolution agnostic, suchthat it merely provides a mapping between input resolutions and outputresolutions by means of scale factors and has no knowledge of thephysical resolution of the printhead 140. Further still, the controlleris preferably pagelength agnostic, such that successive pages aretypically split into bands and downloaded into the page store as eachband of information is consumed.

Turning now to FIGS. 40 to 43, the printhead ICs of the printhead 140will be further described. For clarity, only one printhead IC 252 isshown in FIG. 40, but it will be appreciated that a correspondingarrangement is implemented for the other printhead ICs.

FIG. 40 shows an overview of the printhead IC 252 and its connections tothe controller of the drive electronics 144 of the print engine assembly107. The printhead IC 252 includes a nozzle core array 253 containingthe repeated logic for firing each of the nozzles provided in theprinthead IC 252 and nozzle control logic 254 for generating the timingsignals to fire the nozzles in accordance with data received from thecontroller via a high-speed link 255. The nozzle control logic 254 isconfigured to send serial data to the nozzle core array 253 for printingvia a link 256. Status and other operational information about thenozzle core array 253 is communicated back to the nozzle control logic254 via another link 257.

The nozzle core array 253 is shown in detail in FIGS. 41 and 42. As canbe seen in FIG. 41 the nozzle core array 253 comprises an array ofnozzle columns 258, a fire/select shift register 259 and up to sixchannels, each of which is represented by a corresponding dot shiftregister 260.

As shown in FIG. 42, the fire/select shift register 259 includes aforward path fire shift register 261, a reverse path fire shift register262 and a select shift register 263, and each dot shift register 260includes an odd dot shift register 264 and an even dot shift register265. The odd and even dot shift registers 264 and 265 are connected atone end such that data is clocked through the odd shift register 264 inone direction, then through the even shift register 265 in the reversedirection. The output of all but the final even dot shift register 265is fed to one input of one of plurality of multiplexers 266. This inputof the multiplexers 266 is selected by a signal (CoreScan) duringpost-production testing. In normal operation, the CoreScan signalselects dot data input Dot[x] supplied to the other input of each of themultiplexers 266. This causes Dot[x] for each colour to be supplied tothe respective dot shift registers 260.

A single column N of the array of nozzle columns 258 is also shown inFIG. 42. In the embodiment shown, the column N includes 12 data values,comprising an odd data value 267 and an even data value 268 for each ofthe six dot shift registers 260. Column N also includes an odd firevalue 269 from the forward fire shift register 261 and an even firevalue 270 from the reverse fire shift register 262, which are suppliedas inputs to a multiplexer 271. The output of the multiplexer 271 iscontrolled by a select value 272 in the select shift register 263. Whenthe select value 272 is zero, the odd fire value 269 is output, and whenthe select value 272 is one, the even fire value 270 is output.

Each of the odd and even data values 267 and 268 is provided as an inputto corresponding odd and even dot latches 273 and 274, respectively.Each of the dot latches 273 and 274 and its associated data value 267and 268 form a unit cell, such as a unit cell 275 shown in FIG. 42 forthe odd latch 273 and the odd data value 267. This situation for the odddot shift register 264 is illustrated in more detail in FIG. 43, whichis also applicable to the situation for the even dot shift register 265.

Referring to FIG. 43, the odd dot latch 273 is a D-type flip-flop thataccepts the output of the odd data value 267, which is held by the unitcell (a D-type flip-flop) 275 which forms an element of the odd dotshift register 264. The data input to the flip-flop 275 is provided fromthe output of a previous element in the odd dot shift register 264(unless the element under consideration is the first element in theshift register 260, in which case its input is the Dot[x] value). Datais clocked from the output of the flip-flop 275 into the odd dot latch273 upon receipt of a negative pulse provided on line LsyncL.

The output of the odd dot latch 273 is provided as one of the inputs toa three-input AND gate 276. Other inputs to the AND gate 276 are a fireenable (Fr) signal (from the output of multiplexer 271) and a pulseprofile (Pr) signal. The firing time of a nozzle is controlled by thepulse profile signal Pr and can be, for example, lengthened to take intoaccount a low voltage condition that arises due to low battery, in asituation where the power supply of the printer 100 is provided as abattery element (not shown) mounted in the housing 101, for example.This is to ensure that a relatively consistent amount of ink isefficiently ejected from each nozzle as it is fired. The profile signalPr may be the same for each of the dot shift registers 260, whichprovides a balance between complexity, cost and performance. However,the Pr signal can be applied globally (i.e., is the same for allnozzles) or can be individually tailored to each unit cell or even toeach nozzle.

Once the data is loaded into the odd dot latch 273, the Fr and Prsignals are applied to the AND gate 276, combining to trigger the nozzleto eject a dot of ink for each odd dot latch 273 that contains a logic1.

The signals for each nozzle channel as shown in FIGS. 42 and 43 aresummarized in Table 4 below. TABLE 4 Name Direction Description d InputInput dot pattern to shift register bit q Output Output dot pattern fromshift register bit SrClk Input Shift register clock in; d is captured onrising edge of this clock Fr Input Fire enable; needs to be asserted fornozzle to fire Pr Input Profile; needs to be asserted for nozzle to fire

As shown in FIG. 43, the Fr signals are routed on a diagonal to enablefiring of one colour in the current column, the next colour in thefollowing column, and so on. This averages the current demand byspreading it over six columns in time-delayed fashion.

The dot latches and the latches forming the various shift registers arefully static and are CMOS-based. The design and construction of latchesis well known to those skilled in the art and so is not described indetail herein.

As stated earlier, the printhead 140, which has a printing surface orzone across the width of a maximum-sized page of print media that can beprinted on using the printer 100, may incorporate at least 5,000 nozzlesand even more than 50,000 nozzles in order to provide the requiredquality of printing at the high-speed printing of the printer 100 acrossthis pagewidth. For example, the combined printhead ICs 252 may define aprinthead having 13824 nozzles per channel, including the coloured inkand fixative channels.

The nozzle speed may be as much as 20 kHz for the printer 100 capable ofprinting at about 60 ppm, and even more for higher speeds. At this rangeof nozzle speeds the amount of ink than can be ejected by the entireprinthead 140 is at least 50 million drop per second. However, as thenumber of nozzles is increased to provide for higher-speed andhigher-quality printing at least 100 million drops per second,preferably at least 300 million drops per second, and more preferably atleast 1 billion drops per second may be delivered.

Consequently, in order to accommodate printing at these speeds, thedrive electronics 144, and particularly the controller(s) thereof, mustcalculate whether a nozzle is to eject a drop of ink at a rate of atleast 50 million dots per second, and depending on the printing speed,at least 100 million dots per second, preferably at least 300 milliondots per second, and more preferably at least 1 billion dots per secondfor the higher-speed, higher-quality printing applications.

For the colour printer 100 printing with the maximum width of A4 paper,the above-described ranges of the number of nozzles and print speedsresults in an area print speed of at least 50 cm² per second, anddepending on the printing speed, at least 100 cm² per second, preferablyat least 200 cm² per second, and more preferably at least 500 cm² persecond at the higher-speeds.

The above-described characteristics of the printer 100 enable it toprint at high-quality of at least 1200 dpi, preferably at least 1600dpi, in colour at the high-speed of at least 30 ppm, preferably at least60 ppm. These characteristics coupled with the reduced footprint andsize of the printer 100, as discussed earlier, results in a compacthigh-speed, high-quality printer which heretofore has not been possible.For example, the printer 100, not including the stand assembly 172, maybe constructed to have an overall width of about 300 mm, an overallheight of about 465 mm and an overall depth of about 230 mm foraccommodating A4 paper as the maximum-sized paper. However, otherdimensions are possible depending upon the application for the printer.

Thus, it is envisaged that the fully assembled printer 100 has a minimumtotal volume, i.e., the sum of the actual volumes occupied by thecomponents of the printer 100 including the housing 101, the head unit102, the source tray assembly 103 and the base unit 112, of about 30,000cm³ and a maximum total volume, i.e., the overall space occupied by theprinter 100, of about 40,000 cm³. This results in a minimum printingrate to printer size (volume) ratio of at least about 0.002 ppm/cm³ forprinting at 60 ppm. In cases where the printer 100 is able to print ateven higher rates, i.e., more than 60 ppm and up to as much as 500 ppmfor duplex printing as described earlier, a printing rate to printersize ratio of at least about 0.005 ppm/cm³, preferably at least about0.01 ppm/cm³ and more preferably at least about 0.02 ppm/cm³ ispossible.

Further, the components of the printer 100 including the housing 101,the head unit 102, the source tray assembly 103, the base unit 112 andthe various components thereof can in the most part be moulded fromlightweight material, such as plastic. As such, along with theabove-described reduced size, the weight of the printer 100 can also bereduced. For example, it is envisaged that the printer 100 will have aweight of about 3.5 kg to about 4.6 kg. Thus, at the above-mentionedpossible printing rates of the colour printer 100 beginning at about 30ppm, a printing rate to printer weight ratio of about 0.2 ppm/kg ispossible. Even if different, heavier materials are used for constructingthe components of the printer 100 a printing rate to printer weightratio of at least about 0.5 ppm/kg, preferably at least about 1 ppm/kg,and more preferably at least about 5 ppm/kg is possible as the printingrate is increased. Such printing rate to printer weight ratios are muchbetter than those possible for conventional colour printers capable ofprinting at high-speed, since these printers are typically very largeand heavy.

While the present invention has been illustrated and described withreference to exemplary embodiments thereof, various modifications willbe apparent to and might readily be made by those skilled in the artwithout departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention.Accordingly, it is not intended that the scope of the claims appendedhereto be limited to the description as set forth herein, but, rather,that the claims be broadly construed.

1. A printer comprising: a print media supply for supplying print mediafor printing; a printhead for printing on said print media; a printmedia collector for collecting said printed print media; and a transportdevice for transporting the print media through a delivery path from theprint media supply to the print media collector via the printhead,wherein the print media supply and collector are substantiallyvertically disposed, and the print media delivery path passes through anangle of at least 140°.
 2. A printer according to claim 1, wherein theprinthead is a pagewidth inkjet printhead.
 3. A printer according toclaim 1, wherein the print media delivery path passes through an angleof at least 180°.
 4. A printer according to claim 1, wherein the printmedia supply is adaptable to store variously sized print media.
 5. Aprinter according to claim 1, wherein the print media supply is inclinedto the vertical by an angle of about 15° to 20°.
 6. A printer accordingto claim 1, wherein the print media collector is inclined to thevertical by an angle of about 10° to 15°.
 7. A printer according toclaim 1, wherein the print media supply and collector are arrangedadjacent one another beneath the printhead.
 8. A printer according toclaim 1, wherein the transport device comprises: a picker assemblyarranged to pick-up sheets of print media from the print media supply;and a roller assembly arranged to receive the picked-up sheets from thepicker assembly and transport the received sheets to the printhead forprinting.
 9. A printer according to claim 8, wherein the transportdevice further comprises print media guides for guiding the picked-upsheets of print media from the picker assembly to the roller assembly.10. A printer according to claim 8, further comprising drive electronicsfor driving the printing of the printhead and controlling the pickerassembly to advance the picked-up sheets of print media and the rollerassembly to transport the accepted sheets of print media to theprinthead.
 11. A printer according to claim 1, further comprising: abase; a print engine having the printhead for printing an image on printmedia; and a substantially vertically extending body connecting the baseand the print engine, said body having at least two substantiallyvertically extending surfaces, wherein the print media supply isprovided on a first surface of said surfaces of the body and the printmedia collector is provided on a second surface of said surfaces of thebody.
 12. A printer according to claim 1, further comprising means forcollecting printed sheets of print media, wherein the means: ejects aprinted sheet from the printhead; allows said sheet to fall from theprinthead assuming a substantially vertical path; captures the leadingedge of said sheet; and applies a retaining force to said sheet, saidretaining force having a component substantially perpendicular to saidsubstantially vertical path; and collects said sheet on a retainingsurface of the print media collector, said retaining surface beinginclined with respect to said substantially vertical path.
 13. A printeraccording to claim 1, wherein: the printhead is comprised in a printengine having an outlet arranged to eject printed sheets from the printengine in a substantially vertical path; the print media collector isdisposed beneath said outlet and has a collection surface inclined withrespect to said substantially vertical path for collecting said ejectedsheets and a foot portion projecting from the collection surface; andthe foot portion is arranged to project into the substantially verticalpath of said ejected sheets and has a contact surface arranged tocontact a leading edge of said sheets to stop movement thereof in saidsubstantially vertical path, said contact surface being arranged to urgesaid sheets toward the collection surface for collection.
 14. A printeraccording to claim 1, wherein the print media collector comprises asubstantially vertical collection surface adapted to collect one or moresheets of the print media fed from the printhead in a substantiallyvertical direction and to retain said one or more sheets in asubstantially vertical orientation, the collection surface beingarranged to impart a lateral curvature to the collected print mediaorthogonal to the feed direction of the print media.
 15. A printeraccording to claim 1 incorporating a system for indicating a state ofthe printer, the system comprising: a light source arranged to emitlight of a plurality of colours; a light transmitting channel extendingalong a surface of the printer and arranged so as to transmit light fromthe light source and emit said light along a length of the channel; anda controller arranged to control the light source in response to adetected operational state of the printer, so that the lighttransmitting channel emits predefined different colours to indicatepredefined different states of the printer.
 16. A printer according toclaim 1, further comprising: a housing having a print engine comprisingthe printhead; a print media supply tray incorporated in the print mediasupply for receiving print media for printing by said print engine, saidprint media supply tray being arranged to be received by the housing sothat said print media is maintained in a substantially verticalorientation; and a retaining element provided on the housing andarranged to contact the print media when the supply tray is received bythe housing so as to retain the print media in said substantiallyvertical orientation.
 17. A printer according to claim 1, furthercomprising a detachable stand for supporting the print media supply, theprinthead and the print media collector in an operating orientationwherein the print media supply and the print media collector aresubstantially vertically disposed.
 18. A printer according to claim 1arranged as a desktop printer, wherein: the printhead incorporates apagewidth printhead arranged as a two-dimensional array of at least 5000printing nozzles for printing across the width of print media suppliedfrom the substantially vertically orientated print media supply anddelivered to the substantially vertically orientated print mediacollector after printing; and the print media supply and collector areprovided on different sides of a substantially vertically extending bodyof the desktop printer.
 19. A printer according to claim 1 arranged as adesktop printer, wherein: the printhead has an array of ink ejectingnozzles configured as a pagewidth printhead arranged to print on printmedia supplied from the substantially vertically orientated print mediasupply by ejecting drops of ink across the width of said print media ata rate of at least 50 million drops per second and to deliver theprinted media to the substantially vertically orientated print mediacollector; and the print media supply and collector are provided ondifferent sides of a substantially vertically extending body of thedesktop printer.